U.S. media projections showed Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms defeating Republican Rick Jackson in Georgia’s Nov. 3 governor’s race, bringing a Republican run of more than 20 years to an end, Reuters reported.
Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, is set to replace Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is leaving office after two consecutive terms. The projected result would make Bottoms Georgia’s first woman governor and the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. state.
Reuters linked Georgia Democrats’ gains to Black voters and Stacey Abrams’ campaigns. Abrams lost the governor’s races in 2018 and 2022; in 2018, she became the first Black woman selected by a major U.S. party as its candidate for governor. Reuters credited her campaigns with expanding Democratic turnout and support. The party’s gains included two Senate victories and Georgia’s first Democratic presidential win in decades.
Bottoms’ campaign said it would expand Medicaid, while Jackson’s plan called for cutting Georgia’s income tax in half over four years and freezing property taxes, as outlined in EconoTimes’ pre-election coverage of their proposals.
