Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has shattered a historic barrier, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in United States history.
The former Atlanta mayor secured a decisive victory over Republican rival Rick Jackson, a billionaire who poured more than $200 million of his personal fortune into the race to succeed popular outgoing Governor Brian Kemp.
Bottoms, who previously served as a senior adviser to former President Joe Biden, benefited from a surge in turnout among Georgia’s substantial Black voting bloc during the early voting period.
Throughout the campaign, Republicans sought to portray her mayoral tenure as a period of rising crime and decline for the state’s largest city. Bottoms dismissed the attacks as a tired political tactic.
“It’s a longstanding playbook to paint Atlanta as this big bad place,” she told the Associated Press.
The victory marks the third consecutive election cycle in which Georgia Democrats have nominated a Black woman for the state’s highest office. Stacey Abrams fell short in 2018 and 2022 against Kemp, who is departing in January after serving the maximum two terms.
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