Who is Keisha Lance Bottoms? Democrat makes history by becoming the first Black woman to be elected as Governor in the US, wins Georgia

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democrat nominee from Georgia has been elected as Governor, AP reported. She has made history as the first Black woman to be elected as governor in the United States. Bottoms defeated her Republican counterpart, Rick Jackson, by securing 54.77% of the votes.

She has previously served as the 6th Mayor of Georgia’s Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 and held several other key offices in the city including a member of the Atlanta City council. Her projected victory ends more than two decades of Republican control over the state mansion.

Bottoms becomes the first Democrat to win a Georgia governor’s race since 1998 and will succeed Republican Governor Brian Kemp. She is also set to be the first female governor of the state, according to Reuters.

Bottoms served as an advisor to former President Joe Biden

Keisha Lance Bottoms previously served as an advisor to President Joe Biden during his term. She held several positions in the Biden administration, including as the director of the Office of Public Liaison in 2022 and on the President’s Export Council from 2023. She was later fired by President Donald Trump’s office in 2025, however she claimed she had resigned.

During the 2020 presidential election, Bottoms was projected to be former President Biden’s running mate after he promised in March 2022 to choose a woman for the position. The position was later given to Kamala Harris.

Her 2026 election candidacy marked the third consecutive time that Democrats nominated a Black woman for governor in Georgia. Before her, Stacey Abrams lost in 2018 and 2022 to Kemp.

Bottoms has shown support for LGBTQ communities and condemned ICE

In 2019, Bottoms said, “Our city does not support ICE…We closed our detention center to ICE detainees and we would not pick up people on an immigration violation.” In the previous year as Atlanta’s Mayor, she signed an executive order forbidding the city’s detention center to hold ICE detainees, calling Atlanta a “welcoming city”.

She also went on to release Atlanta’s first ever LGBTQ Affairs report. The report focused on several new policies and initiatives aimed at improving the lives of LGBTQ community members in the city.

She also created the city’s first ever LGBTQ Advisory Board and later appointed Atlanta’s first Director of LGBTQ Affairs. She leaned on affordability and other economic issues, and opposed the construction of data centers throughout the race.