Keisha Lance Bottoms surprised by lopsided victory in Georgia gubernatorial race: ‘I thought it could be a lot closer’

When Keisha Lance Bottoms takes charge of the Georgia governor’s office in January, she will be the first black woman in the United States to hold this position. But you may have discovered it earlier than her.

Bottoms told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King that she was trying to ignore the results and work on her speech when her husband had to physically draw her attention to the television screen.

“I had my AirPods on to work on my speech, and my husband was on the couch next to me, lying next to me, and he kicked me,” said Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor. “I was like, ‘What?’ He said, “They called him.” And I said, “Called what?” And that’s how I found out. Then my son Langston ran into the room and almost jumped on me.”

The race was announced fairly quickly. The outgoing senator from Georgia. Jon Ossoff was expected to win the race shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET, one of the first in the country. CBS News screened Bottoms’ race at 9:30 p.m.

With 99% of the vote as of Wednesday morning, Bottoms was ahead of Republican candidate Rick Jackson by about 360,000 votes.

“I thought it was going to be a very long night. I knew we got the job done, but Georgia has always been, for the last few years, a purple state, so I thought it might be a lot closer,” she said.

But now she’ll have to get to work on her agenda after the departure of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has held the position since 2019. She said her top priorities are related to the cost of living and education.

“My priority will be to address these cost of living issues that I’ve been hearing about across the state,” Bottoms said. “I want to enable local governments to suspend or end our grocery tax and also expand Medicaid and fully fund kindergarten in Georgia, and fully funding education will be a priority in this first budget.”

Not only will Bottoms become the first Black female governor in U.S. history, but she will also be the first female governor of Georgia and one of 17 women serving in governorships nationwide, a new record.

“That’s an incredible number to hear. I didn’t realize it was 17,” Bottoms said. “There is such an incredible group of women governors right now. I heard (Michigan) Gov. (Gretchen) Whitmer say that there have been more governors named John than women, so I don’t know if that record still stands, but they are an incredibly strong group of leaders, and I’m grateful to now be able to be counted in that number.”