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Georgia governor's mansion projected to flip blue for first time in nearly 30 years
Confirmed
In Short: Georgia voters have projected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the winner of the governor's race, marking the first time a Democrat will lead the state in over two decades.
Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected to become Georgia's first Black female governor, ending a nearly 30-year Republican streak that began with Sonny Perdue's election in 2002.
Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson, who had pledged to eliminate DEI policies and phase out Georgia's income tax.
Bottoms' campaign focused on expanding Medicaid, raising the state's minimum wage, and increasing pay for public employees.
Bottoms' victory marks a historic milestone for Georgia and the nation, as she becomes the first Black woman ever elected governor.
Bottoms previously told theGrio, 'In Georgia, where poll taxes, white primaries, and racial terror were once used to keep us from the ballot box, we have now elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor in American history and the first woman to lead Georgia.'
Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, a term marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest.
The governor's office and legislature have remained solidly Republican, despite Bottoms' projected win.
Bottoms' win will shape Georgia's economic and public health policies for the next four years, as she takes office without the incumbent's advantage.
What's confirmed
- Keisha Lance Bottoms is the projected winner of the Georgia governor’s race.
What's still developing
- Georgia voters had not elected a Democratic governor since Roy Barnes won the 1998 election and took office in 1999, with Republicans capturing the governor's mansion in 2002 and holding it ever since.
- “[I’m] able to trace my family back at least five generations in this state to a plantation in Georgia and on my dad’s side,” Bottoms previously told theGrio.
- " We need experts in this field to sit around the table and tell us and give us guidance as to how the state of Georgia should move forward," Bottoms said in October, during her only gubernatorial debate with Jackson.
- She entered the governor's race after building a national profile during her tenure leading the state's largest city.
- The contest will determine whether Democrats make historic gains or Republicans extend a 20-year reign in the governor's mansion.