Bottoms breaks historic barrier in Georgia, puts affordability at center of agenda

ATLANTA — Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s governor’s race Tuesday, breaking a historic barrier while giving Democrats control of an office they had not won since 1998.

The former Atlanta mayor defeated Republican health care executive Rick Jackson to become the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. state. She will also become Georgia’s first Black governor and its first woman governor.

With an estimated 99% of the vote counted, Bottoms had 2,271,403 votes, or 54.3%, to Jackson’s 1,909,161 votes, or 45.7%. The roughly 362,000-vote advantage represented a decisive finish to a campaign that September polling had portrayed as nearly even. Results remained unofficial pending certification.

Bottoms will succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who could not seek a third consecutive term. Her victory ends more than two decades of Republican control of the governor’s office and follows unsuccessful Democratic bids by Stacey Abrams in 2018 and 2022.

The next test will be translating her campaign’s emphasis on household expenses into state policy.

Bottoms proposed allowing cities and counties to suspend or eliminate local sales taxes on groceries and essential items, including diapers and baby formula. Her platform also calls for expanding Medicaid, strengthening rural hospitals and creating a prescription drug affordability board. Those proposals remain campaign commitments rather than enacted benefits.

Her education agenda includes universal prekindergarten, changes to Georgia’s school funding formula, eliminating state income taxes for teachers and creating a path to free technical and community college. She also pledged to restore abortion rights and expand voting access.

Jackson, the billionaire founder of Jackson Healthcare, campaigned as a political outsider, emphasizing tax cuts, public safety and reduced regulation. His defeat denied Republicans another term leading one of the country’s most closely contested political battlegrounds.

The outcome differed sharply from the narrow margins suggested a month before the election. A Sept. 21-23 Big Data Poll put the candidates at 50% each when leaning voters were included. A Sept. 22-23 InsiderAdvantage survey showed Jackson ahead 48% to 46%, while the RealClearPolling average cited in the earlier campaign coverage placed him ahead 47.2% to 46.5%. Those figures were pre-election snapshots, not final results.

Bottoms brought experience in local and federal government to the race. She served on the Atlanta City Council before becoming mayor in 2018, then worked in President Joe Biden’s administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Her campaign emphasized health care, education, jobs and living costs across Georgia.

She is expected to take office in January, moving from a history-making campaign to responsibility for delivering the economic relief she promised.