Georgia Governor Race 2026: Bottoms vs. Jackson

Georgia’s open governorship is one of the marquee contests of the cycle. Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), the former Atlanta mayor and a senior advisor in the Biden White House, would be the first Black woman to serve as governor of any state. Rick Jackson (R), founder of the healthcare staffing firm Jackson Healthcare, is a self-funding first-time candidate who won the nomination over Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Trump’s pick in the primary. Trump endorsed Jackson in July, and Barack Obama endorsed Lance Bottoms on October 8. Lance Bottoms is running on expanding Medicaid, letting localities drop sales taxes on groceries, building more housing, and fully funding schools. Her first full attack ad of the general election says Jackson made his fortune “off a broken healthcare system,” and she casts him as wanting “to be Trump’s favorite governor.” Jackson is running as an outsider with a tax-cutting platform, pledging to halve the state income tax and freeze property taxes, and he has said he will remind voters of the crime problems Atlanta faced during her tenure as mayor. At their only debate together, an October 6 town hall, he said “bad mayors don’t make good governors” and backed Medicaid expansion only if it does not jeopardize existing federal funding. On data centers, she called for a pause on new construction, while he said he would require local community approval. Jackson declined the October 12 debate, leaving Lance Bottoms to take questions alone; she said voters deserved answers on the six-week abortion ban, state contracts, and his ties to Trump, while he said voters care about affordability and gas prices. In the closing stretch Jackson has leaned on the outgoing governor, campaigning with Kemp and promising to “build on Brian Kemp’s legacy.” Jackson kept his remarks brief at Trump’s October 16 rally in Dalton. Early voting opened October 13 with more than 190,000 ballots cast on the first day, a midterm record. The money is lopsided: pro-Jackson groups have spent or reserved nearly $76 million in general-election airtime, against about $8 million for Lance Bottoms and her allies, and Jackson had put at least $108 million of his own fortune into the race through June. Democrats have not won a Georgia governor’s race since 1998.