ATLANTA — Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected to become the next governor of Georgia and the nation’s first Black woman governor, according to Decision Desk HQ. Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, prevailed in one of the most competitive races of the cycle in a state that helped elect President Donald Trump just two years ago. She took on Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive who flooded the race with his wealth, contributing more than $200 million to his own bid.
Bottoms ran on promises to take on the rising cost of living. She promised to give municipalities the option of doing away with grocery taxes as well as taxes on diapers, baby formula and feminine hygiene products. She also proposed to do away with the state’s tax on car insurance premiums and homeowner’s insurance, and to lower the state’s gas tax.
Bottoms also promised to expand Medicaid, a longtime goal for Democrats in the state. She said she wanted to create a pathway to free technical education and community college in the state, and vowed to pause the construction of new data centers in Georgia. Bottoms campaigned as a mom with a working-class background and generations of Georgia roots, sharing with voters the impact of her father’s incarceration and her mother’s years as the owner of a hair salon.
She rarely talked about the history-making potential of her campaign, and the potential to give Black women unprecedented representation at the state level in Georgia, but also a seat at the table at the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association, powerful political organizations that have never had a Black woman in their ranks. Bottoms was one of eight Black Democratic women whom Georgia voters had the chance to vote for in 10 statewide elections this year, a new record. Bottoms did emphasize the importance of this election on Black voting rights, which she vowed to protect from federal and state-level attacks.
Looming over Black Georgians is the potential for redistricting, made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s April ruling weakening key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Republican leaders shelved a plan to redraw the state’s political maps backed by current GOP Gov.
Brian Kemp, but some Democrats believe Republicans are simply putting it off until after the election to avoid voter backlash. For many Black women in Georgia, Bottoms’ election is a milestone that resonates with them and sends a message about the direction of their state and their country. While Bottoms rarely directly addressed that yearning, in one of the final speeches of the cycle, she asked voters to visualize her journey as a young Black girl to the state’s top job.
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