Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected to win Georgia’s gubernatorial race, according to the Associated Press. She will make history as the first Black female governor in the United States.
Lance Bottoms beat Republican billionaire Rick Jackson in the highly watched race in the battleground state in the Deep South.
The former Atlanta mayor and native of the city was elected mayor in 2018. She campaigned on expanding Medicaid and lowering healthcare costs. Throughout the campaign, she faced attacks from President Donald Trump and Republicans over her leadership of Atlanta, which has a large Black population, during the COVID-19 pandemic and racial reckoning over police violence against Black people.
During her leadership, the city was rocked by violent protests after the murder of George Floyd and the police killing of Rayshard Brooks.
In 2021, she announced she would not run for reelection and in 2022 was appointed senior advisor to President Joe Biden and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
She reflected on her campaign and the historic nature of her journey in an interview with the Breakfast Club early Tuesday.
“It’s so much more personal to me because I come from people who were once enslaved in this state,” Lance Bottoms said. “And the fact that I am now the nominee I think speaks to the possibilities when generations make the right decisions and make decisions that allow everybody opportunity.”
