Keisha Lance Bottoms elected Georgia governor, first Black woman to win any US governorship

Keisha Lance Bottoms will walk into the Georgia governor's mansion in January as the first Black woman ever elected governor of any US state — a milestone she learned about not from a campaign aide or a TV anchor, but from a kick on the sofa.

I had put in my AirPods to work on my speech, and my husband was on the sofa near me, laying near me, and he kicked me. I went like, 'What?' He said, 'They called it.' And I said, 'Called what?' And so that's how I knew. Then my son Langston ran in the room and jumped on top of me almost.— Keisha Lance Bottoms, Governor-elect of Georgia

CBS News projected Bottoms' win by 9:30 p.m. on election night. With 99 percent of the vote counted by Wednesday morning, she was beating Republican Rick Jackson by about 360,000 votes — a margin that surprised even the winner, who had braced for a much closer finish in a state that has delivered tight results for years.

I thought that it was going to be a very long night. I knew that we had done the work, but Georgia has always — for the past few years — been a purple state, so I thought it could be much closer.— Keisha Lance Bottoms, Governor-elect of Georgia

The win flips the Georgia governorship to Democrats for the first time since 1998, ending more than two decades of Republican control. Bottoms will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has held the office since 2019, when she takes office in January, according to NBC News.

She is also Georgia's first female governor and first Black governor. Nationally, her election brings the number of women serving as state governors to a record 17, according to CBS News.

There is such an incredible group of women governors right now. I've heard (Michigan) Gov. (Gretchen) Whitmer say there have been more governors named John than women, so I don't know if that record still stands, but they are an incredibly strong group of leaders, and I'm grateful to now be counted in the number.— Keisha Lance Bottoms, Governor-elect of Georgia

Bottoms, 56, is a native of Atlanta and the daughter of blues musician Major Lance. Before entering elected office, she practiced law and held a magistrate judgeship in Fulton County, then won a seat on the Atlanta City Council in 2009. She served as Atlanta's mayor from 2018 to 2022, a tenure that spanned the Covid pandemic and the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd. Choosing not to pursue another term, she went on to serve in the Biden administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, a role she held through 2023, according to The Guardian.

Her path to the Democratic nomination opened when US Representative Lucy McBath, the party's initial favorite for the race, chose not to run, citing her spouse's health problems. According to The Guardian, Bottoms then entered the race and clinched the Democratic nomination outright, topping six other candidates without the need for a runoff.

Against her stood Rick Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive and first-time candidate who launched his campaign in February and pumped more than $100 million of his own money into the race, according to NBC News. Throughout the primary, Jackson drew repeated comparisons to Donald Trump, presenting himself as a business success story and a political outsider — an image Bottoms later turned against him in the general election.

During their sole general election debate, Bottoms criticized Jackson for saying he wanted to be Trump's favorite governor, according to NBC News.

According to The Guardian, Jackson's advertising leaned heavily on footage from the 2020 George Floyd protests and the killing of Secoriea Turner, an eight-year-old girl shot dead during a street takeover by armed gunmen. Bottoms, meanwhile, ran ads linking Jackson to Trump, whose approval ratings in Georgia were low, and attacked him over earlier statements in which he had expressed support for data center construction, according to NBC News.

The 2020 election also shadowed the race. During the Republican primary, Jackson refused to say who won the 2020 presidential election; ahead of the general election matchup with Bottoms, he acknowledged Joe Biden's victory. Georgia gives the issue added weight: the FBI this year seized election records from the state tied to the 2020 contest, and the next governor will bear responsibility for certifying the 2028 presidential results, according to NBC News.

Jackson's campaign was also weakened by intraparty fractures that never fully healed after a bruising primary. According to NBC News, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones — who fell to Jackson in a June runoff despite having Trump's backing during the primary — withheld any public endorsement of his rival, even after Trump privately pressed him to offer one.

Bottoms, meanwhile, drew support from a roster of high-profile Democrats in the campaign's final stretch. A video endorsement from former President Barack Obama added to her momentum. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Sen. Raphael Warnock campaigned for her in Georgia. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, himself winning re-election that same night, joined Bottoms at a series of 'United for Georgia' rallies and directed millions of dollars from his campaign to the Democratic Party of Georgia's coordinated effort on her behalf, according to NBC News.

Bottoms campaigned on affordability and economic issues throughout the race. She told CBS News her first budget priorities will be allowing local governments to suspend or end the grocery tax, expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, fully funding pre-K, and fully funding education. According to The Guardian, she also made a commitment to ease the state's existing limits on abortion access.

One of her first post-election moves was announcing her gubernatorial transition team, which she named 'Georgia's Promise.' She tapped media mogul Tyler Perry to join the team, according to Variety.

Bottoms takes office in January. The governor's role in certifying the 2028 presidential election results means her tenure will carry consequences well beyond Georgia's borders from the moment she is sworn in.

Why it matters — Bottoms' win breaks a barrier no US election has crossed before, ends nearly three decades of Republican dominance in Georgia's statehouse, and puts a Democrat in charge of certifying the 2028 presidential election results in one of the country's most closely watched swing states.

Reported by theguardian.com, thehill.com, sports.yahoo.com, variety.com, cbsnews.com, reuters.com, nbcnews.com, pbs.org