Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will win the gubernatorial race in Georgia, according to an Associated Press race call, defeating Republican Rick Jackson.
Lance Bottoms will succeed term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp, succeeding the state’s first Black governor and its first woman governor.
The last Democratic governor of Georgia was Roy Barnes, who served from 1999 to 2003.
Bottoms, 56, focused her campaign on promises to expand Medicaid coverage in Georgia, bring down the cost of housing, fully fund pre-K programs and expand education access, as well as protect voting rights.
The born-and-raised Georgia native served as the 60th mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 before deciding not to run for re-election.
She served as a senior advisor under the Biden Administration and as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for a year.
Bottoms also has an extensive legal background as an attorney and former magistrate judge.
