Keisha Lance Bottoms has won Georgia’s governor’s race, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of a US state, according to Reuters and The Associated Press.
The Democrat defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson. She will succeed Republican Brian Kemp, who is leaving office after two consecutive terms. The result ends more than two decades of Republican control of the governor’s office and will make Bottoms Georgia’s first female governor.
The AP reports that she is the first former Atlanta mayor elected to lead Georgia and the first Democrat to win its highest office since 1998. Her victory changes control of the state’s executive office on the same night Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won reelection.
Before serving as mayor, Bottoms was a judge and an Atlanta City Council member. A biography submitted to Congress in 2021 identifies her as Atlanta’s 60th mayor and a graduate of Florida A&M University and Georgia State University College of Law. She later served in President Joe Biden’s administration.
Election-night projections precede the state’s formal certification process. Georgia’s 2026 election calendar sets November 9 at 5 p.m. for county certification and November 20 for state certification of federal and statewide contests.
The calendar also gives voters until November 6 at 5 p.m. to resolve missing signatures or information mismatches on timely submitted absentee ballots. That deadline concerns ballot processing after Election Day; it does not extend the time to cast a new ballot.
