Bottoms becomes first Black woman elected US state governor

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s race for governor on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of a US state and delivering Democrats a victory in one of the nation’s most closely divided political battlegrounds.

The former Atlanta mayor, who will also be the first female governor of the state, defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson, according to US media projections.

She succeeds Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who is leaving office after serving two consecutive terms. Bottoms, 56, also previously served as a senior adviser to former President Joe Biden and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

The victory marked a new milestone for Black women in American politics, who have long been a core base within the Democratic Party but remain underrepresented in the nation’s highest elected offices. The same evening, Stacey Plaskett was elected governor of the US Virgin Islands, a US territory, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of a US jurisdiction.

Bottoms’ win also marks a significant shift in Georgia state politics, where Black voters have formed a central part of the Democratic coalition that helped to turn the reliably Republican state into a national battleground.

Republicans had controlled the governor’s office for more than two decades.

Jackson, the billionaire founder of healthcare staffing company Jackson Healthcare, cast himself as a political outsider and campaigned on tax cuts, public safety and reducing government regulation.

Bottoms’ victory comes eight years after fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams became the first Black woman nominated for governor by a major US political party.

Abrams lost governor’s races in Georgia in 2018 and 2022, but her campaigns helped to build a multigenerational, multiracial coalition that boosted Democratic turnout, helped elect two Democratic US senators and delivered Georgia’s electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in decades.