NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected to win Georgia’s gubernatorial race against Republican businessman Rick Jackson — flipping the governor’s mansion blue for the first time in more than two decades.
Fox News Decision Des projects the former Atlanta mayor will become the Peach State’s first female governor and the first Black woman elected governor in American history.
The victory marks a major breakthrough for Democrats in one of the nation’s most closely contested swing states. Georgia voters had not elected a Democratic governor since Roy Barnes won the 1998 election and took office in 1999, with Republicans capturing the governor’s mansion in 2002 and holding it ever since.
Left: Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson attends the game between the Tennessee State Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on Sept. 5, 2026 in Athens, Georgia; Right: Gubernatorial candidate and former mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, speaks to supporters and members of the media while attending a phone booth event on Election Day May 19, 2026 in Atlanta, Ga. (Left: Todd Kirkland/Getty Images; Right: Megan Varner/Getty Images)
GOP GOVERNOR CANDIDATE SKIPS DEBATE AGAINST FORMER BIDEN ADVISOR, REPLACED BY EMPTY PODIUM
Fellow Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff also won his race for reelection, Fox News Decision Desk projects.
Bottoms, who served as Atlanta’s mayor from 2018 to 2022, later joined former President Joe Biden’s White House as a senior advisor and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
She emerged from the Democratic primary to face Jackson in the open-seat race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive and first-time candidate, poured more than $200 million of his personal fortune into his campaign. He defeated Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Republican primary runoff , setting up the general election against Bottoms.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 14: Georgia Democratic nominee for Governor Keisha Lance Bottoms participates in a Fireside Chat during the 2026 National Association Of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention & Career Fair at Atlanta Marriott Marquis on August 14, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Nykieria Chaney/Getty Images)
The race drew national attention in a state that has shifted from a longtime Republican stronghold into a presidential battleground.
Biden narrowly carried Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992, before President Donald Trump returned it to the Republican column in 2024.
GIANNO CALDWELL: BOTTOMS RAN ATLANTA INTO THE GROUND. WE CAN’T LET HER DO IT TO GEORGIA
Rick Jackson is running for governor in Georgia, promising to eliminate DEI policies. (Rick Jackson for governor/YouTube screenshot)
Bottoms campaigned on expanding Medicaid, raising the state’s minimum wage and increasing pay for public employees, while Jackson called for phasing out Georgia’s income tax and pitched himself as a political outsider who would bring a businessman’s approach to state government.
Jackson repeatedly targeted Bottoms’ record as Atlanta mayor, while Bottoms attacked the Republican’s massive self-funding and sought to tie him to Trump.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Bottoms’ victory ends a Republican run in the governor’s office that began with Sonny Perdue’s election in 2002 and continued through the administrations of Nathan Deal and Kemp.
Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.