Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s race for governor, defeating Republican businessman Rick Jackson and becoming the first Black woman elected governor in United States history.
[CALLING OUTLET] called the race at [TIME] with [PERCENT]% of the expected vote counted. Unofficial state returns showed Bottoms with [VOTES] votes, or [PERCENT]%, and Jackson with [VOTES] votes, or [PERCENT]%. [Add concession or recount language if needed.]
The victory makes Bottoms Georgia’s first woman and first Black governor. It ends more than two decades of Republican control of the office and gives Democrats their first gubernatorial win since Roy Barnes was elected in 1998.
Bottoms served as Atlanta mayor from 2018 to 2022 after earlier terms as a city council member and Fulton County magistrate judge. She later joined former President Joe Biden’s White House as a senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
Her campaign centered on affordability, full Medicaid expansion, abortion rights, voting access and a temporary pause on new data center construction while Georgia develops statewide safeguards. Bottoms portrayed the election as a chance to resist President Donald Trump’s policies and accused Jackson of trying to buy the governorship.
Jackson, the founder of Jackson Healthcare, spent more than $200 million of his fortune on the race. He promised deep income tax cuts, a state spending audit, public-safety initiatives and a business-oriented approach to government.
Bottoms overcame that enormous financial disadvantage in a contest where late polls placed the candidates within their margins of error. Her coalition relied heavily on Black voters, metropolitan Atlanta and other Democratic population centers, while Jackson dominated many rural and exurban counties.
Bottoms will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and is expected to take office during the General Assembly’s opening week in January.
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