Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, was elected on Tuesday governor of Georgia, The Associated Press said, as a state shaped by the legacies of slavery, segregation and the fight for civil rights became the first to choose a Black woman as its chief executive.
Ms. Bottoms, 56, also became the first Democrat elected governor in Georgia in more than 25 years. Her victory against Rick Jackson, the Republican in the race and a billionaire entrepreneur, affirms Georgia’s transformation over the past decade from reliably Republican to a swing state.
From the start of the race, Ms. Bottoms positioned herself as an unrelenting foil to President Trump in a state that he had won two years ago but where he had considerable baggage. Those include a criminal indictment stemming from his schemes to overturn his defeat in 2020 and a long list of statewide candidates who had his blessing but were rejected by voters.
Like Democrats elsewhere, she sought to harness the frustrations of voters who blamed Mr. Trump for inflation, rising fuel prices, challenges accessing affordable health care and an unpopular war with Iran.
She had also zeroed in on protecting access to the polls and safeguards for minority representation after the Supreme Court’s decision this year that weakened much of what remains of the Voting Rights Act, one of the principal achievements of the civil rights movement that had been grounded in Atlanta. The issue had already been a potent one among many Black voters in Georgia after Republicans responded to the gains made by Democrats in recent elections by adding restrictions on voting access.
To win, Ms. Bottoms had to overcome doubts in her own party and even in her hometown about her viability in a statewide election. She had been dogged by concerns and resentments from her time leading Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, which ended with her declining to run for re-election, as crime increased and her support eroded.
In the governors race, she surprised her skeptics by winning the primary outright after breaking ahead of a crowded field of other Democrats who had hoped to force her into a runoff. The win also gave her a head start on wooing swing voters while Republicans were still mired in a very expensive runoff for the nomination.
She beat Mr. Jackson, who’d had an unexpected ascent of his own. A political novice with virtually no statewide name recognition, Mr. Jackson entered the race late and pit himself against three candidates who had each twice been elected to statewide office.
Mr. Jackson laid out a rags-to-riches story, growing up in poverty and neglect and emerging from foster care to become one of Georgia’s wealthiest men. His money came largely from medical staffing companies but also from businesses and investments related to real estate, a Texas data center and faith-based film productions. In all, he poured more than $100 million of his own money into the campaign, far outspending Ms. Bottoms.
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