Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected governor of Georgia on November 3, 2026, and she can trace her own family in the state back only five generations, to a plantation in Crawfordville.
She said so herself on the campaign trail. “I am at least a fifth-generation Georgian,” she told voters. “I say ‘at least’ because we can only trace our family back five generations, to a plantation in Crawfordville.” She has described being a descendant of enslaved people as an honor to have this opportunity to serve.
No Black woman had ever been elected governor of an American state. Bottoms, a Democrat, beat Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive who spent more than $200 million of his own money on the race. She was projected to win with 55.8 percent of the vote. Her win ends 24 years of Republican control of the office, a run that began when Sonny Perdue won it in 2002.
“He may have the money, but we have the power,” Bottoms wrote in April.
She was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017 and served from 2018 to 2022, then spent 2022 to 2023 as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden. She campaigned on expanding Medicaid, building affordable housing, and protecting Black voting rights, and she pledged to veto maps that limit Black voters’ power.
“I’m not running to be his favorite governor,” she said of President Donald Trump during the campaign’s only debate. “I’m running to work on behalf of people like you.”
