Keisha Lance-Bottoms Elected Georgia Governor, Ossoff Wins Re-Election
By Courier Georgia Staff
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms are both projected to win their respective elections for US Senate and and governor. Democrats are also expected to win Georgia’s Attorney General and Secretary of State races as well.
Meanwhile, both Public Service Commission have yet to be called after polls closed on Nov. 3.
US Senate race
Ossoff defeated Republican Rep. Mike Collins, 76.14% to 23.86% as of 7:30 p.m. ET, to win a second term. Decision Desk HQ called the race at 7:18 p.m. ET.
The result was no surprise. Ossoff led every major public poll in the final stretch, including an October Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll that showed him up 48% to 40%.
Collins, a self-described “MAGA warrior,” campaigned alongside Trump and stuck to an “America First” message even as Trump’s approval in Georgia stayed underwater.
His campaign was dogged by controversy, most prominently a July CNN report that his son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, is a white nationalist influencer who shared antisemitic material and Nazi imagery online.
Ossoff built a fundraising advantage of millions of dollars, while the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC for Senate Republicans, pulled back from Georgia. A super PAC is a type of political action committee that can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money in a race. Ossoff’s win will fuel speculation about a 2028 presidential run, which he has repeatedly ruled out, saying he has “zero interest.”
Georgia governor’s race
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms defeated Republican Rick Jackson, according to NBC News, making history three times over. The race was called 9:04 p.m. EST by NBC News, with 55.3% of the vote compared to Jackson’s 44.7%, with 75% of the vote counted. She will be Georgia’s first woman governor, its first Black governor, and the first Black woman elected governor of any US state.
Bottoms won despite a lopsided funding disadvantage. Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive, put more than $200 million of his own fortune into his campaign.
But the spending was not enough to sway an electorate that had soured on Republicans and on Trump in particular. Bottoms campaigned on kitchen-table issues: expanding Medicaid, letting local governments drop sales taxes on groceries, eliminating state taxes on car and homeowners insurance premiums, building more housing and fully funding schools. She cast Jackson as an out-of-touch billionaire who wanted to be “Trump’s favorite governor.”
Georgia’s attorney general race
Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller is projected to be Georgia’s attorney general, according to NBC News, which called the race for Miller at 9:10 p.m. EST. Miller currently leads Republican Brian Strickland 57% to 43% with 73% of the vote counted.
The attorney general is the state’s top lawyer, enforcing state laws, issuing binding legal opinions, representing state agencies in court and protecting consumers.
Miller, a former Fulton County prosecutor and civil rights attorney, argued that Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had been “asleep at the wheel” in protecting Georgians from corporate misconduct and argued that Strickland would be more of the same. She built her campaign around fighting price gouging and highlighting her experience prosecuting violent crime.
Georgia’s secretary of state race
Democrat Penny Brown Reynolds is projected to be the Georgia Secretary of State, according to NBC News, which called the race for Brown Reynolds at 9:09 p.m. EST. Brown Reynolds currently leads Republican Tim Fleming 57% to 43% with 73% of the vote counted.
Brown Reynolds will become Georgia’s first Black woman secretary of state and its first Democrat in the job in nearly 20 years, succeeding Brad Raffensperger.
The secretary of state oversees Georgia’s elections, a critical role in a state where battles over election integrity have raged since Trump’s false claims of fraud following the 2020 election. The winner will oversee the state’s 2028 presidential election.
Brown Reynolds, who later served as a civil rights official at the US Department of Agriculture, made the race a referendum on Trump’s push to overhaul elections. She pledged to do everything in her power to keep the federal government from interfering in Georgia’s elections.
“What I have to do is make certain that we do everything in our power so that the federal government does not come and try to take away our right to vote,” she told Capital B in October.
Georgia’s Public Service Commission races
Democrats Peter Hubbard and Shelia Edwards are up against Republicans Fitz Johnson and Josh Tolbert for seats on the five-member Public Service Commission. The commission regulates Georgia Power, the state’s investor-owned electric monopoly. During the campaign, Democrats argued that years of Republican control led to repeated rate hikes while Georgia Power’s profits climbed, driven in part by the rapid growth of data centers, which became the flashpoint of both races.
