Keisha Lance Bottoms Seeks Historic Win as Georgia's First Female Governor

Keisha Lance Bottoms is attempting to become the first woman ever elected governor in the United States. At 56, the former Atlanta mayor and White House adviser to President Joe Biden is running for office in Georgia, a Deep South state where she describes her family lineage as extending back at least five generations to a plantation in Crawfordville.

"I am at least a fifth-generation Georgian," Bottoms said during a recent campaign appearance. "I say 'at least' because we can only trace our family back five generations to a plantation in Crawfordville." While she rarely discusses slavery or Jim Crow segregation explicitly, her campaign is taking place in a state where all 83 governors since 1776 have been white men.

Her Republican opponent, Rick Jackson, is a 72-year-old billionaire who has poured more than $200 million of his own money into the race. Jackson, who grew up in Atlanta but now lives on a large suburban estate, has focused his attacks on Bottoms' four-year tenure as mayor. He frequently repeats the line that "Bad mayors don't make good governors," arguing that she turned her back on the city by joining the Biden administration after her term ended.

Jackson's television ads feature grainy footage of the 2020 street protests in Atlanta, which followed the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed Black man. These ads paint the city as a place of decline and crime. Donald Trump joined the attack at a rally in Macon last weekend, stating that Bottoms "destroyed Atlanta with her crime and filth and constant riots." Trump added that he always viewed the city as great but no longer considers it that way.

Bottoms is responding with advertisements that highlight her leadership during those 2020 protests. One clip shows her holding a news conference with law enforcement leaders during the peak of the demonstrations. In the ad, she tells residents, "If you care about this city, then go home," before adding, "We are better than this." She emphasized her personal stake in the city's future, noting, "Above everything else, I am a mother, so you are not going to out-concern me and out-care about where we are."

Stacey Abrams, who lost gubernatorial races to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 and 2022, believes Bottoms has a stronger position because of her executive experience. Abrams, a former state House minority leader, noted that voters often place a high value on executive roles. She stated that Bottoms has a "sound argument" because she served as mayor, a position that Abrams and other supporters argue validates her experience more than her previous roles as a City Council member, magistrate judge, and prosecutor.

Retired educator and Bottoms supporter Beverly Rice, who is also a Black woman, said it is easy for opponents to attack the candidate based on personal biases. Rice expressed confidence in Bottoms' ability to win if voters judge her by policy values rather than identity. "I don't look at her and see a 'Black governor,'" Rice said. "I see a governor for all the people."

Bottoms is focusing her campaign on tangible policy differences, particularly expanding Medicaid eligibility to reach both urban and rural populations. She plans to face Jackson and Trump at a rally in Atlanta on Wednesday, an event headlined by former President Barack Obama. The race represents the third consecutive time Georgia Democrats have nominated a Black woman for governor.

Jackson's campaign has also targeted Bottoms' handling of immigration and bail. She signed an executive order blocking the Atlanta jail from holding federal immigration detainees and eliminated cash bail for certain nonviolent crimes to reduce jail populations. While federal statistics show that crime rates in Atlanta dropped after the pandemic surge, Republicans continue to cite the city's crime spike during her tenure as evidence of her failure.