5 min read
Atlanta sent one of its own to the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday night, and the whole country felt it.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, won the race for governor of Georgia on November 3, 2026.
She defeated Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive, with 54.31 percent of the vote.
The final count gave her 2,268,462 votes to 1,908,261 for Jackson, a margin of more than 360,000 votes.
The race was called shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern on election night, in a contest the polls had rated a dead heat.
Jackson poured a reported 200 million dollars of his own money into the race and still came up short.
Major Takeaways
- Bottoms is the first Black governor and the first woman governor in Georgia history, and the first Black woman elected governor in America.
- She is also the first Atlanta mayor to ever become governor of Georgia.
- Her win ends 24 years of Republican control and puts a Democrat in the office of governor for the first time since 1998.
- A redistricting fight may reach the Capitol before she takes the oath on January 11, 2027.
Built in Atlanta, Step by Step
None of this came out of nowhere for the people who watched her rise in this city.
Bottoms was born in Atlanta in 1970 and raised on the streets she would one day help govern.
She earned a broadcast journalism degree at Florida A and M University and a law degree at Georgia State University.
Before the mayor office, she served Atlanta as a city council member, a magistrate judge, and a prosecutor.
She also represented children as an attorney in Atlanta juvenile court, work that shaped how she sees families in crisis.
The City Hall Years, 2018 to 2022
Bottoms became the 60th mayor of Atlanta in 2018, taking over City Hall at Mitchell Street with a promise to run a government regular people could trust.
Her term carried the city through a pandemic, a summer of national protest, and a hard spotlight on public safety.
She chose not to run for a second term and left office in 2022.
Washington came next, with a senior adviser role in the Biden White House.
Through every stop, Atlanta stayed home base, and Atlanta voters stayed her foundation.
What This Win Means for Atlanta
For the first time in Georgia history, the person in the governor office learned executive leadership running the city of Atlanta.
Marc Morial, president and chief executive of the National Urban League, pointed out that Bottoms is the first Atlanta mayor to become governor of Georgia.
“We’re making history in several ways tonight, and Keisha Lance Bottoms’ win is at the top of that list,” Morial said. “She’s broken the glass ceiling.”
Her agenda speaks straight to kitchen tables across this city: lower costs, expanded Medicaid, stronger health care access, and more housing families can afford.
Her affordability plan includes property tax relief and cutting the state tax on gasoline.
For Black Atlanta, the meaning runs deeper than policy.
Bottoms has shared that her great great grandfather Shephard Peek was sold into slavery in Georgia in 1826.
Two hundred years later, his descendant will lead the state.
She also joins a statewide moment, as Black women lead Georgia after sweeping statewide wins up and down the ballot.
The Fight That May Come First
Celebration aside, a hard fight may be waiting at the Capitol before she ever takes the oath.
Republican lawmakers have weighed a special session to redraw Georgia political maps before Governor Brian Kemp leaves office in January.
The redistricting fight that could follow the Bottoms victory puts real Black political power on the line.
The maps at risk include the Black majority congressional district held by Representative Sanford Bishop in southwest Georgia.
Atlanta own 13th District could also be targeted, a seat Democrat Jasmine Clark won with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
“I would not be surprised if there is a special redistricting session,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University, before the election.
Voting rights groups already pushed back once this year, when protests at the Capitol helped shelve an earlier redistricting push.
What Happens Next for Keisha Lance Bottoms
Bottoms will take the oath as the 84th governor of Georgia on Monday, January 11, 2027, at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.
She succeeds Brian Kemp, who has served since 2019 and could not seek another term.
She will serve as one of a record five Black governors in America at the same time.
She also carries a promise Atlanta heard on the debate stage in October, at a debate Jackson declined to attend.
“If we want a better Georgia, we have to fight for it. We can make Georgia more affordable, restore women’s right to choose, protect our voting rights, protect our communities from data center growth, ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed and fight against the dangerous policies of Donald Trump,” Bottoms said.
Stacey Abrams, whose own runs in 2018 and 2022 opened this road, offered the words Atlanta felt.
“Georgians spoke clearly for a brighter direction for our state,” Abrams said in a message of congratulations. “Let’s get to work.”
On January 11, Atlanta does not just watch history. Atlanta walks its own into the Capitol.
Follow the Urban City Podcast Atlanta desk for continuing coverage of the transition and the new administration.
