Keisha Lance Bottoms has become the first Black woman elected governor in the United States, defeating Republican billionaire Rick Jackson.
The Democrat, a former mayor of Atlanta and adviser to ex-President Joe Biden, was helped to victory by strong turnout among Georgia’s Black voters during early voting.
Jackson spent more than $200 million of his personal fortune in an effort to succeed outgoing Republican governor Brian Kemp, who is leaving office in January after eight years because of term limits.
Republicans had sought to portray Bottoms’s time as Atlanta mayor as a period of crime and decline for Georgia’s largest city. She rejected that characterisation during the campaign.
“It’s a longstanding playbook to paint Atlanta as this big bad place,” Bottoms told the Associated Press.
Her victory marks the third consecutive election in which Georgia Democrats have nominated a Black woman for governor. Stacey Abrams was defeated by Mr Kemp in 2018 and 2022.
