Keisha Lance Bottoms has made history, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in United States history and one of only a handful of Black people to be chosen as governor of any state. The victory caps an impressive career for Bottoms, which has included leading Atlanta and serving in the White House, and it solidifies Georgia’s status as a swing state where Democrats have been making significant inroads.
Bottoms wins Georgia race after final push with Democratic heavy hitters
The Associated Press declared Keisha Lance Bottoms had defeated GOP billionaire candidate Rick Jackson to become the next governor of Georgia. The early result settled a race that had been expected to be a nail-biter, as Bottoms entered Election Day in a virtual tie with Jackson. In the final days of campaigning, Bottoms’ campaign engaged in a significant final push, supported by prominent Democratic backers. Sen. Raphael Warnock campaigned with Bottoms while urging the Democratic Party to put more resources behind her and other southern candidates. Bottoms’ campaign received significant support from former President Barack Obama, who issued a video endorsing her in early October. Later in the month, Obama visited Georgia to campaign for Bottoms and for the now-successful reelection campaign of Sen. Jon Ossoff, with the former president continuing to get under the skin of the Trump administration over a joke he made about the Trump White House. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also pushed for Bottoms to be elected at a recent gala for Democratic candidates held in Atlanta.
The victory is the latest achievement for Bottoms, who has risen within the ranks of the Democratic Party through her work in Georgia and beyond. Bottoms was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017, becoming the second woman to lead the city. Her tenure included pushes for criminal justice reform as well as managing crises including a major cyberattack, protests after the murder of George Floyd, the COVID-19 pandemic and a mass shooting targeting Asian Americans. She announced in 2021 that she was not seeking reelection. Since leaving the mayor’s office, Bottoms has served as vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection in the Democratic National Committee and worked as a commentator for CNN. She also worked in the Biden White House as a senior advisor for public engagement and later as an advisor for Biden’s reelection campaign, and former President Joe Biden endorsed Bottoms in her race to become governor of Georgia.
Stacey Abrams celebrates Bottoms’ victory as Republican efforts fall short
In addition to building upon her own career, Bottoms’ victory also comes on the heels of the last two Georgia gubernatorial campaigns of voting rights advocate and Democratic organizer Stacey Abrams. “Congratulations to Governor-elect @KeishaforGA on making history tonight,” posted Abrams, who has spent years organizing, mobilizing and fundraising on behalf of Democrats including Bottoms. “Georgians spoke clearly for a brighter direction for our state. Thank you to every organizer and volunteer who made sure those voices were heard. Let’s get to work.”
Georgia’s governor’s race, along with Ossoff’s Senate campaign, again brought national attention to a state that has become an important battleground between the two major parties. In the 2020 election, Biden’s victory over Trump and the wins by Ossoff and Warnock were crucial in swinging the presidency and the U.S. Senate toward Democrats. Trump’s attempts to interfere with the vote, including urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes he needed to change the election results, led to a widespread criminal investigation that included numerous indictments against Trump and his allies in Fulton County. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to push false narratives that the election was rigged against him, and federal agents raided Fulton County election offices in January as part of a probe pushed by the president and his allies. In the governor’s race, Trump endorsed Jackson and appeared with him during visits to Georgia, but the Republican candidate had distanced himself from the unpopular president in the final stretch of his campaign.
In the end, Trump’s efforts to sway Georgia did not succeed in 2020, and his actions this year did not prevent Democrats from winning the governor and Senate races in the state. Georgia has not only tilted for Democrats in this race, but in electing Bottoms as governor, the state has chosen the first woman and nonwhite person to ever lead the state and has elected the first Black woman to lead any state in the nation.