Keisha Bottoms has made history by becoming the first Black woman elected governor of a US state after winning Georgia’s gubernatorial election.
Bottoms defeated Republican Rick Jackson in Tuesday’s election, marking a historic milestone in American politics.
The 56-year-old will also become Georgia’s first female governor, succeeding Republican Brian Kemp, who is leaving office after serving two consecutive terms. Her emergence also marks the first time a Democrat has won Georgia’s governorship since 1998.
Here’s what you should know about her.
1. Keisha Lance Bottoms was born on January 18, 1970, to an American R&B singer, Major Lance, and Sylvia Robinson in Atlanta, Georgia.
2. She is a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School.
3. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida A&M University, concentrating in broadcast journalism. She also earned a J.D. degree from Georgia State University College of Law in 1994.
4. Bottoms worked as an attorney and served as a magistrate judge before pivoting into politics. In 2002, she became a magistrate judge in Atlanta. In 2008, she ran unsuccessfully for a judgeship on the Fulton Superior Court.
5. She began her political career in 2009 with her election representing District 11 in southwest Atlanta. She was reelected in 2013 and served there till 2018. She was concurrently the executive director of the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority starting in 2015.
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6. Bottoms was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017, defeating Mary Norwood in a closely contested runoff, making her the sixth African American and the second African American woman to serve as mayor of Atlanta.
7. Bottoms was named a permanent co-chair of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
8. She joined President Joe Biden’s administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in 2022. She left the position in 2023.
10. On April 4, 2025, Bottoms announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia in 2026.
11. She secured Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination in May 2026 in a seven-person primary.
12. She married Derek W. Bottoms at Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta in October 1994, and they have adopted four children.