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Major Takeaways
- Three Black women won Georgia top offices on Tuesday as voters elected a governor and an attorney general and a secretary of state.
- Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman ever elected governor of an American state with about 54 percent of the vote.
- Tanya Miller became the first woman elected attorney general in Georgia and Penny Brown Reynolds became the first Black person elected secretary of state.
- Women won at least eight statewide races in Georgia and Democrats won every statewide office that appeared on the ballot this year.
Black women lead Georgia into a new era after voters handed three of the most powerful offices in the state to Black women on Tuesday.
Keisha Lance Bottoms won the race for governor and Tanya Miller won the race for attorney general.
Penny Brown Reynolds won the race for secretary of state and completed a trio that no state has seen before.
The three victories landed in one night in a state where Black residents were once denied the vote itself.
Each woman will take office in January and each will hold real power over daily life in Georgia.
Black Women Lead Georgia at the Very Top
Bottoms defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson with 54.3 percent of the vote to 45.7 percent.
The margin passed 350,000 votes in late returns and the race was called on Tuesday night.
She will become the 84th governor of Georgia and the first Black woman ever elected governor of an American state.
Her win ends nearly 24 years of Republican control of the governor office in Georgia.
Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 after years on the Atlanta City Council.
She later served in the White House as director of the Office of Public Engagement from 2022 to 2023.
On election night she told supporters that she will be a governor for all of Georgia.
She also spoke about her family roots and about generations who lived under slavery in Georgia.
She said she is standing on shoulders made of steel.
A Prosecutor Takes Charge of Georgia Law
Miller defeated Republican state Senator Brian Strickland with 55.5 percent of the vote to 44.5 percent.
She becomes the first woman ever elected attorney general in Georgia.
She also becomes only the second Black person to hold the job and the first Black woman in the role.
Miller served as a federal prosecutor and as a prosecutor in Fulton County before she entered politics.
She entered the Georgia House in 2023 and later chaired the House Democratic Caucus.
As attorney general she will serve as the chief legal officer for the state of Georgia.
She has named violent crime and human trafficking and gangs and consumer fraud as early priorities.
In her victory speech she pledged to protect people who have felt ignored by the system.
She told young girls and young people who have ever felt underestimated that they matter.
She said your voice matters and your vote matters and your future matters.
She added that there is room for you in the promise of Georgia.
The Woman Who Will Run Georgia Elections
Reynolds defeated Republican Tim Fleming with 55.6 percent of the vote in the secretary of state race.
Fleming is a two term state lawmaker who once served as deputy secretary of state.
Reynolds had built a lead of more than 11 points by late Tuesday night.
She becomes the first Black person ever elected secretary of state in Georgia.
She also becomes the first Black woman ever elected to the post in the state.
Reynolds served as a judge in Fulton County before her run for statewide office.
Her public service includes civil rights work and equal employment work at the Department of Agriculture.
She will succeed Brad Raffensperger and she will oversee elections and state records and business filings.
That role carries special weight in a state that has fought hard battles over voting access.
Reynolds said a vote should be a right and not a fight.
She said voters chose the person they saw as the most qualified for the job.
She said voters wanted somebody who loves and cares for the people and understands the value of that vote.
A Sweep That Went Far Beyond Three Races
Democrats won every statewide office that appeared on the ballot in Georgia on Tuesday.
Senator Jon Ossoff won a new term with 58.9 percent of the vote against Mike Collins.
Josh McLaurin won the lieutenant governor race with 55.9 percent of the vote.
Women won at least eight statewide races across the Georgia ballot on Tuesday night.
Katherine Juhan Arnold won the agriculture commissioner race and Nikki Porcher won the labor commissioner race.
Keisha Sean Waites won the insurance commissioner race and Shelia Edwards won a Public Service Commission seat.
Lydia Powell won the state school superintendent race against an incumbent who had served more than a decade.
Powell is set to become the first Black woman to lead Georgia public schools.
That system serves more than 1.7 million students across more than 180 school districts.
Women will now hold seven of the eight major statewide executive offices in Georgia.
Democrats also led in 13 state House districts now held by Republicans in early Wednesday counts.
A net gain of 10 seats would give Democrats the state House for the first time since 2004.
What This Power Can Mean for Black Georgia
These offices decide questions that shape Black life in Georgia every single day.
The governor sets the agenda on health care and schools and jobs and public safety.
Bottoms campaigned on expanding Medicaid and raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour.
She also backed higher pay for teachers and full funding for the state prekindergarten program.
The attorney general decides how the state fights fraud and crime and abuse of power.
The secretary of state decides how easy or how hard it is for people to cast a ballot.
Black voters cast about 30 percent of early votes in Georgia in a record midterm turnout.
On Tuesday that turnout helped turn a historic night into a governing majority.
At the Atlanta watch party one supporter waved a sign that read Black women lead Georgia.
Atlanta attorney Michelle Augustine said the sign means everything because Black women for sure lead Georgia.
Beverly Burks serves as mayor of Clarkston and she was the first Black woman elected to that role.
Burks said the title of first matters less than the work done each day for people who need support.
That work starts in January when Bottoms and Miller and Reynolds each take the oath.
Read more in our coverage of Bottoms and her historic win for governor and the Georgia redistricting fight that could follow her victory.
Follow every new development in our News coverage as the new Georgia leadership prepares to govern.
