Georgia Makes History With Governor Election

Person using laptop displaying midterm election screen — Photo: rawf8 / Shutterstock

Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman in American history projected to serve as a state governor.

Story Snapshot

Major networks projected Bottoms the winner over Republican Rick Jackson on election night.
Preliminary Associated Press data showed Bottoms leading Jackson by double digits with most votes counted.
The win makes Bottoms the first Black woman ever elected governor of a U.S. state.
Final statewide certification from Georgia election officials had not yet posted when projections were made.

Networks Call the Race for Bottoms

NBC News and CNN both projected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the winner of Georgia’s governor’s race on November 3, 2026. ABC News and the Associated Press reported the same outcome, describing Bottoms as the projected victor over Republican Rick Jackson. Bloomberg confirmed the NBC projection, reporting that early Associated Press returns showed Bottoms leading Jackson 56% to 43.9% with 72% of the statewide vote counted.

County-level data backed up the statewide trend. In Gwinnett County, one of Georgia’s largest and most populous counties, official results showed Bottoms with 164,809 votes, or 69.45%, compared to Jackson’s 72,501 votes, or 30.55%. ABC News also reported the projected outcome, noting Bottoms would become the first Black woman to lead a state government anywhere in the country.

A Barrier 249 Years in the Making

No Black woman had ever been elected governor of a U.S. state before this race. Only three Black Americans have ever won a governorship, and all three were men, starting with Douglas Wilder of Virginia in 1989. Research groups tracking women in politics had flagged Georgia’s race for months as a potential breakthrough, noting that 17 states have never elected any woman as governor, let alone a Black woman.

The scale of the gap goes beyond governors’ mansions. Black women hold just over 3% of all statewide elected executive offices nationwide, even though they make up a much larger share of the electorate. That imbalance has persisted for decades despite rising numbers of Black women running for office at every level of government.

Certification Still Pending as Celebrations Begin

Georgia’s official statewide results page still listed zero votes for both candidates at the time networks called the race, with none of the state’s 159 counties marked as fully reporting. That gap reflects the normal lag between media projections, which rely on partial returns and statistical modeling, and the state’s formal canvassing and certification process, which can take days to complete.

🚨 HISTORY: Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Georgia — the first Black woman ever elected governor of a U.S. state, per AP/Reuters. The former Atlanta mayor beat Rick Jackson, ending 20+ years of GOP control of the governor's mansion. #Georgia #USMidterms pic.twitter.com/dq9hOmYN9D

— Real USA Stories (@RealUsaStories) November 4, 2026

Bottoms’s win arrives as Georgia Democrats also claimed victory in the U.S. Senate race the same night, adding to a string of statewide wins. For voters across the political spectrum frustrated with distant, unresponsive government, the race drew attention less for party outcome and more for breaking a barrier that had stood since the nation’s founding. Whether the result reshapes how both parties recruit candidates in future statewide races remains an open question as Georgia’s official count moves toward certification.