Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has won the Democratic nomination in Georgia’s gubernatorial race, becoming the party’s standard-bearer as it looks to flip the governor’s mansion in November.
The Associated Press called the race for Bottoms at 10:30 p.m. With 67% of ballots counted, 56-year-old Bottoms held 57.6% of the vote, compared to second-place finisher, 42-year-old former Georgia state Sen. Jason Esteves, who earned 16.7%.
Bottoms’s outright victory means she escapes a runoff election and will face the Republican candidate in the November general election for the opportunity to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), who is term-limited.
Georgia GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and businessman Rick Jackson are advancing to a June 16 runoff election, after neither candidate secured the majority needed to win outright on Tuesday. The Associated Press called the race at 8:38 p.m. With 33% of ballots counted, Jones received 36.8% of the vote, while Jackson earned 34.7%.
Meanwhile, the former Atlanta mayor defeated a packed Democratic primary field that included former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Michael Thurmond, a former CEO of DeKalb County and a representative in the Georgia General Assembly.
Bottoms, who was the mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, has been the front-runner in the Democratic primary, with polling from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showing her with 39% of voters’ support, dwarfing her opponents.
GEORGIA JUDGE ALLOWS POLL WATCHERS TO MONITOR TABULATION OF PRIMARY RESULTS
The former Atlanta official enjoyed the benefit of name ID throughout the primary election, campaigning on her record as mayor. Still, Bottoms’s primary opponents argue her mayoral record will ruin the party’s chances to flip the executive office in November.
Bottoms’s mayoral tenure occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Republicans have attacked her for the riots that took place under her watch, as well as for her role as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden.