Keisha Lance Bottoms has won the race for governor of Georgia, becoming the first Black woman ever elected governor of a US state and the first woman to lead the state.

The Associated Press called the race on Tuesday, November 3, in favour of the 56-year-old Democrat, who defeated Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive endorsed by President Donald Trump. With most votes counted by Wednesday morning, Bottoms held more than 54 per cent of the vote, a margin of over 360,000 votes, according to unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State's office.

The victory ends 24 years of Republican control of the governor's office in Georgia. Bottoms is the first Democrat to win the post since Roy Barnes in 1998, and she succeeds term-limited Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who has served since 2019.

A career in Atlanta politics

Bottoms is a former Atlanta city councillor who served as the city's mayor from 2018 to 2022, and later as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under former President Joe Biden. Her campaign leaned heavily on affordability — the cost of housing, healthcare and everyday living — a message that resonated in a state where polls had the race in a statistical tie on election day.

Her opponent, Jackson, poured more than $200 million of his own fortune into the campaign, giving him a staggering spending advantage. Bottoms won despite that deficit, a result her supporters presented as proof that organisation and message could still beat money in American politics.

The win also carries deep personal resonance. Bottoms, who was born in Atlanta in 1970, has said she is the great-great-granddaughter of a man sold into slavery in Georgia in 1826. She will take the oath of office in January as governor of the state where her ancestors were once enslaved.

A night of firsts

Bottoms was one of several history-makers on election night. In the US Virgin Islands, Stacey Plaskett was elected governor, becoming the first Black woman to lead a US jurisdiction, while in Florida, Republican Byron Donalds became the first Black Republican elected governor of a US state. There have been only three Black governors elected in American history before this week, all of them Democratic men.

Bottoms' victory comes eight years after fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams became the first Black woman nominated for governor by a major US political party, in two unsuccessful campaigns in 2018 and 2022. For Democrats, the Georgia result — alongside their sweep of both chambers of Congress — capped a midterm night that reshaped the party's map. For Bottoms, the immediate challenge is governing: a redistricting fight in the Republican-controlled state legislature could begin before she is even sworn in.