Keisha Lance Bottoms is first Black woman elected a US governor
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, wins Georgia's governorship and becomes the first Black woman elected to lead a US state.
Atlanta — Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has won the race for governor of Georgia, becoming the first Black woman elected to lead any US state, media projections showed. CNN and NBC News called the contest in her favour on Tuesday night, Africanews reported.
Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, defeated Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive running as a Republican. Her victory returns the governor's office to Democrats after more than two decades of Republican control; the outgoing governor, Brian Kemp, was term-limited and could not run again.
The result is a setback for President Donald Trump, who endorsed Jackson in July and campaigned alongside him in the Atlanta area in the race's closing weeks. It compounds a bruising night for the White House, with Democrats seizing control of Congress in the same midterm vote.
Jackson presented himself as a political outsider who had grown up in Georgia's foster care system. He entered the race in February, spent more than $100 million of his own fortune on the campaign, and beat Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones — Trump's original pick — in a June primary runoff. That self-funded war chest was not enough to hold the state.
Bottoms served as Atlanta's mayor from 2018 to 2022, then joined the Biden White House as director of the Office of Public Engagement and later worked as a senior adviser to Joe Biden's 2024 reelection campaign. Former president Barack Obama rallied for her in Georgia in late October. On the trail she promised to expand Medicaid, lower costs for families and protect voting rights.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff also won re-election on Tuesday, defeating Republican congressman Mike Collins. Taken together, the twin wins confirm Georgia's status as a pivotal swing state after it backed Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024.
Bottoms now faces the task of governing a closely divided state. Her first test comes when she takes office and must deliver on a Medicaid expansion pledge that will run through a legislature shaped by Tuesday's results — a fight with direct consequences for health costs and state spending.
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