Black Woman Governor in Georgia Could Change History

Keisha Lance Bottoms is trying to make history as the first woman to be elected governor in the United States. Never has a Black woman been elected governor in any state. The former Atlanta mayor and onetime White House adviser to Democratic President Joe Biden is trying to do it in a Deep South state where her lineage extends back to antebellum enslavement.

The former mayor and onetime White House adviser to Democratic President Joe Biden is trying to do it in a Deep South state where her lineage extends back to antebellum enslavement. Bottoms rarely if ever mentions slavery, Jim Crow segregation or even race explicitly. But that story, hers, Georgia’s and the nation’s, shadows her battle with Republican nominee Rick Jackson.

One of her most recent ads pushes back by featuring clips of the news conference she held with the city’s law enforcement leaders during the peak of 2020 street protests of police violence in Atlanta and nationwide against Black men. “If you care about this city, then go home,” she said. “We are better than this.”

Bottoms will answer Trump and Republicans at a rally Wednesday headlined by Barack Obama, the first Black U.S. president.

Georgia Democrats have nominated a Black woman for governor for the third consecutive time. Stacey Abrams lost in 2018 and 2022 to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is leaving office in 2027 after eight years due to term limits. Abrams came as close to winning a governor’s race as any Black woman before her.

In an interview, Abrams was reluctant to assign race and gender as the deciding factor in her defeats. But she said Black women running for governor face a higher bar because there is no example yet for voters who place a special emphasis on executive experience.

Bottoms’ bid marks the third consecutive time that Georgia Democrats have nominated a Black woman for governor. Stacey Abrams lost in 2018 and 2022 to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is leaving office in 2027 after eight years due to term limits. Abrams came as close to winning a governor’s race as any Black woman before her.

Abrams said that executive standard “does not apply equally across candidates” in politics. She said Bottoms “has a sound argument” because she has held the executive’s role. Before that, Bottoms was a City Council member, magistrate judge and prosecutor. That resume, Abrams and others said, is why Republicans have so aggressively criticized Bottoms’ experience.