Georgia voters made history Tuesday, electing for the first time in 238 years of statehood a woman — and a Black person — as governor.

In January, when she is sworn into office, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, will also become the first Black woman governor of any state in the 250-year history of the nation.

Bottoms declared victory Tuesday night at 10:41 p.m. 

“Thank you, Georgia. I am honored to be your 84th governor,” she said at her victory party in an Atlanta Marriott Marquis ballroom.

She claimed victory with a lead of nearly 10 percentage points over Republican Rick Jackson, with more than 4 million votes counted, according to unofficial results from the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

Bottoms rode a wave of frustration over the cost of living, with Republicans in control of the governor’s office and the legislature, not to mention the White House and Congress.

The issue was so potent that Bottoms took a page from the GOP playbook, campaigning on cuts to some taxes, though her pitch was not as expansive as her opponent’s.

Jackson had pledged to cut the state income tax in half and eliminate the state tax on energy for residential and small-business customers.

He also pledged to suspend the gasoline tax during price spikes. Bottoms proposed permanently lowering it by about a nickel, to 28 cents a gallon from 33.3 cents. She also said she wanted to eliminate the tax on auto insurance premiums and encourage local governments to eliminate their sales tax on groceries.

Bottoms and Jackson differed sharply on other issues.

She campaigned on expanding Medicaid, as most other states have done. Jackson said, without elaborating, that he would build on Gov. Brian Kemp’s template for Medicaid with “intelligent” expansion.

And she attacked him on abortion, saying she would push lawmakers to undo the state’s current ban after fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically six weeks into pregnancy.

Jackson said he supported the law.

One of the biggest distinctions between them was his wealth.

This contest for governor was among the most expensive in the country, with the two candidates’ campaigns collecting over $150 million during the past three months alone.

Most of that was on Jackson’s side, from his own pockets.

The billionaire founder of a healthcare staffing company spent more than $200 million of his own money on his campaigns, putting more than $100 million into his Republican primary and runoff races then pouring more than $90 million more into his contest with Bottoms in the last three months alone.

Bottoms had highlighted his wealth during her campaign and said in her victory speech that her supporters had “shown that no amount of money will ever never ever ever overcome the power of the people.” She added that her campaign was “about everyday hard-working people who want to be able to afford to put food on the table.”

Bottoms’ win ends a 24-year drought for Democrats, who have watched one Republican after another occupy the governor’s mansion since Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes lost his reelection bid to Republican Sonny Perdue in 2002.

Georgia governors enjoy considerable power, including the authority to veto individual items in the budget passed by state lawmakers.

But to accomplish her goals, she will need collaboration from a General Assembly that has been similarly dominated by Republicans. The GOP has controlled the state Senate since 2003 and the state House since 2005.

That could change as votes in legislative races are counted and winners called.

Jackson tried to undermine confidence in her leadership skills, attacking her management of protests and riots during her 2018-2022 term as Atlanta mayor, which included the COVID-19 pandemic. He also attacked her for declining to run for a second term, saying she had chosen to run away rather than to stand and fight when the challenges were great.

But Bottoms returned to a bigger fight this year and will take control of the nation’s eighth-largest state by population when she is inaugurated in January.

On Tuesday night, she touched on the historic nature of her win, mentioning the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an aunt who staged sit-ins at the Atlanta University Center and a great-great-grandmother who was born 20 years before the United States ended slavery.

“I know I am standing on shoulders made of steel,” Bottoms said.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.