As a blue wave swept the nation, Georgians elected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the state’s first Democratic governor in more than two decades—and the U.S.’s first Black female governor. 

Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta and advisor in the Biden White House, beat billionaire Republican businessman Rick Jackson by nearly nine points in what was considered a toss-up race.

She will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who ran against Democrat Stacey Abrams—the first Black woman to run for governor on a major party ticket—in 2018 and 2022. 

In a state that turned blue in a presidential election for the first time in nearly 30 years in 2020, then swung back the other direction four years later, the election of Lance Bottoms and other Black female Democrats to several statewide offices, including secretary of state and attorney general, is momentous. 

As my colleague Garrison Hayes put it on an election night edition of “Stress Test”: “It’s not just huge from a representation perspective. This is huge from a Black political power perspective, especially in Georgia,” Hayes added, noting that as governor, Lance Bottoms will have the power to veto congressional maps that the Georgia GOP has been considering.

On Wednesday, current Gov. Kemp announced in a statement that he would “not be calling a special session of the Georgia General Assembly to curtail executive branch powers or debate redistricting changes.”

“The voters of our state have spoken,” he said.   

Lance Bottoms’ campaign centered on lowering housing and healthcare costs, expanding Medicaid, funding education, and protecting reproductive rights.

“This campaign was about every community in every corner of Georgia,” Lance Bottoms said in her victory speech on Tuesday night.

This post was shared from Mother Jones.