Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will win Georgia governor race, CNN projects

By Fredreka Schouten

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will win Georgia’s gubernatorial race and become the first Black female governor in U.S. history, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.

The former Atlanta major also will make Georgia history as the first African American and the first woman elected to the role.

Bottoms faced an onslaught of advertising from her GOP rival, billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson, a political novice who burst onto the scene in this election and deployed his wealth to defeat a crowded field of well-known Republicans in the primary and flood the airwaves in the general election.

Bottoms, who served as Atlanta mayor between 2018 and 2022, was among the women who President Joe Biden considered as a running mate in the 2020 election. She later joined his administration.

She made expanding Medicaid coverage, homeowner tax relief, and increasing education funding the key pillars of her campaign.

The election result cements Georgia’s status as a purple state after years of Republican control of the governor’s office. Bottoms is slated to succeed two-term GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

The-CNN-Wire
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