Keisha Lance Bottoms faces Rick Jackson in bid to become first Black female governor

Georgia voters face a choice this Tuesday that could rewrite American political history. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the 56-year-old former Atlanta mayor, is seeking to become the first Black woman elected as a state governor. Her opponent is Rick Jackson, a 72-year-old billionaire and Republican nominee who has spent the campaign questioning her leadership.

Jackson has poured more than $200 million of his own money into television ads. These spots feature grainy footage from the 2020 street protests in Atlanta. The demonstrations followed the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed Black man. Jackson uses these images to characterize Bottoms' four-year tenure as a period of decline and disorder.

Bottoms describes her deep roots in the state during her campaign stops. She is a fifth-generation Georgian, a lineage she traces back to a plantation in Crawfordville. While she rarely discusses her family history explicitly, the shadow of race and gender looms large in a state where all 83 governors since 1776 have been white men.

The former mayor pushes back against what she calls a long-standing playbook to portray Atlanta as a dangerous place. She points to the city hosting the Olympics and eight World Cup soccer matches recently. In a new advertisement, she references a news conference held during the 2020 protests, where she told demonstrators to go home and asserted that the city was better than its temporary struggles.

Stacey Abrams, who ran against Republican governor Brian Kemp in 2018 and 2022, sees a pattern in how candidates are judged. Abrams notes that Black women face a higher standard because there is no prior example of a Black female executive in a statehouse. She argues that Bottoms has a strong case because she held the executive role as mayor, unlike previous candidates who were minimized for lacking that specific experience.

Jackson has repeatedly claimed that bad mayors do not make good governors. He highlights Bottoms' decision to leave office after one term to join the Biden administration, stating she turned her back on Atlanta. Other surrogates, including state insurance commissioner John King, have told rallies that Bottoms let the city burn, a reference to a Wendy's restaurant set on fire during the 2020 unrest.

Bottoms counters these claims with federal statistics. She notes that the crime spike during her tenure matched national trends during the pandemic and that rates have since dropped. She also defends her move to eliminate cash bail for certain nonviolent offenses as a way to reduce excessive punishment. Her campaign argues that voters should focus on policy, such as expanding Medicaid eligibility, rather than historical grievances.

Beverly Rice, a retired educator and supporter in Georgia, believes voters will look past demographic labels. She stated that she sees a governor for all people, not just a Black governor. Rice expressed full faith that Bottoms can win if citizens judge her based on her values and proposed solutions.