CNN Projects Keisha Lance Bottoms to Win Georgia Governor Race

CNN projected Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms to win Georgia’s governor’s race, a result that would make the former Atlanta mayor the state’s first Black governor and first woman elected to the office. The projection put her ahead of Republican Rick Jackson, but ballot counting was still underway in one account of the race, and certified final results were not reported. Bottoms, who served as Atlanta mayor from 2018 to 2022, is projected to succeed two-term Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who could not seek another consecutive term. If confirmed, her victory would end a long stretch of Republican control of the governor’s office and give Democrats the state’s top executive post. The campaign focused on health care, taxes, education and economic policy. Bottoms made expanding Medicaid, providing homeowner tax relief and increasing education funding central to her platform. She also proposed raising Georgia’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and pausing data-center development, arguing that rapid growth could strain power systems. Another account described her as supporting state voting-rights legislation and an immediate Medicaid expansion aimed at about 300,000 uninsured residents....