Keisha Lance Bottoms will be Georgia’s next governor with historic victory • Georgia Recorder

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, will be the first Democrat to hold Georgia’s highest office in more than two decades and the nation’s first black female governor.

Bottoms defeated his Republican opponent, health care executive Rick Jackson, who was endorsed by both incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump and who spent $200 million of his own money on the race.

The Associated Press announced the race just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Bottoms, in her victory speech, echoed the themes of affordability and health care that drove her throughout the race.

“This victory is for veterans who need access to health care,” she said. “This is for the student who wonders if the cost of education is worth it, it’s for the teenager who is asked about mental health support. This victory is for the caregiver who can’t afford health care and needs Georgia to finally expand Medicaid,” she told a cheering crowd.

Citing entrepreneurs, farmers and teachers trying to stay afloat, she added: “Georgia, this victory is for all of us. »

Thanking his supporters and campaign aides, Bottoms said, “You have shown that no amount of money can ever – ever, ever – defeat the power of the people. »

Bottoms will be the state’s first Democratic governor since former Gov. Roy Barnes lost his reelection bid in 2002. Republicans have had a stranglehold on state government since Sonny Perdue won that election. Kemp has strong approval ratings, but is term limited and cannot run again.

Bottoms did not hesitate to recognize the historic nature of her victory, both for herself and for the state’s arc. She recounted a visit she made the day before her election to her ancestral home in Crawfordville, where she said her family traces its roots “back at least five generations.”

“This is the city that was home to the former governor of Georgia and vice president of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stevens,” she said.

“I visited the grave of Betsy Peek, my great-great-grandmother, born in 1845, 20 years before emancipation. In a cemetery full of unmarked graves, I found hers. I don’t know what dreams Betsy Peek had for her children or for her grandchildren or for the generations she would never meet. But I know I stand on shoulders of steel.

“So yes, Crawfordville produced the vice president of the Confederacy,” Bottoms said. “But tonight it also produced your next governor.”

Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration after leaving City Hall, ran a centrist campaign focused on portfolio issues. In response to concerns over the scale growth of data centers and their impact on Georgians’ electricity bills, Bottoms proposed a pause on their construction. She proposed a mechanism allowing local governments to reduce taxes on groceries and basic household items.

Medicaid expansion was at the heart of his campaign, just as it had been for the Democratic candidates who preceded him. Bottoms presented it as a way for the state to fund more health services and prevent further hospital closures.

With her victory, Bottoms was able to accomplish what Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly missed nearly a decade ago. Abrams was about 55,000 votes short of beating Kemp in 2018, and Georgia’s statewide elections have been closely watched since then.

But Bottoms’ victory this year was far from certain. She and Jackson were neck and neck throughout the campaign, with Bottoms appearing to gain momentum as Election Day approached.

Jackson, in a five-minute speech to supporters at his election night event in north Atlanta, said he called on Bottoms to concede shortly before coming out to address the crowd. Some fans booed after he said he had conceded, which he interrupted by saying: “No, no. That’s fine.”

“Tonight, the voters spoke and I respect their decision. This was a hard-fought election. Keisha Lance Bottoms deserves our congratulations and prayers as she prepares to take office,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he would continue to use his fortune “to manage this money and impact the kingdom.”

“It’s how I built this business that employs thousands of Georgians and saves lives every day. It’s why I’ve fought hard for children in foster care across the state, and it’s why we have invested millions in philanthropy for Christian causes here in Georgia and around the world. I know it’s not my money; it’s God’s money,” Jackson said.

Both candidates have attracted prominent national figures to Georgia, including former President Barack Obama and former vice president Kamala Harris who appeared here during early voting to energize voters. On the Republican side, President Donald Trump visited the state twice in early voting, and other national Republicans like Sens. Rick Scott and Ted Cruz also came hoping to turn out conservative voters, even as their chances of flipping Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat appeared to be fading.

Bottoms’ race for the governor’s seat was bruising. She faced an uphill battle against the millions of dollars Jackson spent to flood the airwaves with ads portraying his record as mayor as catastrophic for Atlanta. Scenes from 2020 were repeatedly shown on screens across the state, reminding voters of the Wendy’s fast-food restaurant and police cars set on fire during protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Jackson’s campaign has attempted to make Secoriea Turner, an 8-year-old Atlanta girl who was killed during those protests, an icon of Bottoms’ alleged failures as mayor despite criticism from Turner’s family. wishes.

Jackson’s campaign also fueled Bottoms’ decision not to seek a second term in 2022 because she abandoned Atlanta at a difficult time, often repeating the phrase “bad mayors don’t make good governors” on the campaign trail.

Noting Jackson’s call to concede the race, Bottoms said she thanked him for a hard-fought race.

“We agreed that together we would continue to support children in foster care across the state,” she said. “And no matter who you voted for tonight, I will be governor of all Georgia.”

But in the final weeks leading up to Election Day, Democrats in Georgia and elsewhere came to Bottoms’ rescue. She raised about five times as much in the final reporting period as she did during the rest of her entire campaign, and in the final days of the race she received $5 million in help from the Democratic Governors Association and another $2.5 million from former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg.

Kemp at the start supported Jackson’s rival in the GOP primaries, but he campaigned vigorously with Jackson in the general election, with the two men frequently seen together at rallies and campaign stops across the state. Kemp touted the state’s economic strength and his administration’s focus on tax cuts on the campaign trail, touting Jackson as the best person to succeed him and continue moving Georgia on a similar path.

But the state’s economy and population have grown, as have concerns about the cost of living, giving Bottoms and other sagging Democrats an opportunity to campaign on what has consistently been seen as the dominant concern of voters this year, both nationally and here in Georgia.