Keisha Lance-Bottoms Works To Defy Doubt, GOP Dollars, And A Republican Voter Edge To Get The Win For Democrats–And Make Black History

She emerged from a crowded contest as a little known city councilmember to become the second Black, female mayor in Atlanta’s history and years later, she would romp through the crowded Democratic primary for governor, besting a former Dekalb CEO and state senator without the need for a runoff. Today, she is the Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia–the second Black woman to get the nod, four years after Stacey Abrams’ unsuccessful second attempt to win the governor’s mansion.

She has broad name ID and a deep well of metro voter support–support she’ll need in November in order to beat Republican nominee Rick Jackson, who is less known but has deeper pockets. The healthcare executive and billionaire Jackson upset Trump-endorsed current lieutenant governor Burt Jones after dumping tens of millions of dollars into the campaign to secure the win.

Meanwhile Democrats are bracing for a Republican money pile to be dumped on Lance-Bottoms as Republicans bank on spending their way to a victory as they try to outrun the party’s White House occupant’s poor polling numbers in the state.

But Keisha Lance-Bottoms is a tough candidate who has faced difficult odds before and came out on top. She is also known as a focused messenger who knows how to speak to voters, a candidate who more often than not gets the votes she needs–a candidate who has only lost one election in her two decades in public service, a loss the former mayor, councilmember, and probate judge says motivated her to win and since then, she has.

Keisha’s voters, who she’ll need to turn out in November to beat back the Republican tilt of a state whose demographic picture otherwise points to a majority-minority population, hope she keeps winning. Recent polls suggest she can: A Fox 5 poll released yesterday shows her with a 5-point lead over Jackson, which follows a Fox News poll that shows a similar lead.

If the polls hold, and the voters show up, Keisha Lance-Bottoms will become the state’s first Black, first female, and first Black female governor in the former Confederate state’s history. On top of that, she’ll make national history as the country’s first Black woman elected governor of any state.

But the state’s history is what has some Democratic and Black voters worried, wondering if a state that is filled with MAGA voters who will vote for Republicans no matter how difficult the economy gets (inflation and cost of living), no matter how imposing Republican policies become (severe abortion restrictions), and no matter what racially-tinged electoral policies the party pushes (redistricting), the party’s voters will vote GOP–and eclipse the number of Democrats and Independent voters ready for change who follow that feeling up with a trip to the polling station in November.

But also figuring into the equation is President Donald Trump, whose approval numbers across the country are falling–including here in Georgia, where Newsweek shows him with a meager 37 percent approval rating. A slumping economy, rising inflation and cost of living increases, and a seemingly unending series of scandals and controversies, including a billion dollar fund designed to financially reward people who supported the president in the run up to and aftermath of the January 6 riot, has Georgians frustrated and Trump’s numbers reflect that.

Among the frustrated are Georgians who are out of work or struggling while news reports indicate the president pocketed over a billion dollars in crypto investment since he assumed office the second time. Democrats hope that Trump’s political woes and wobbly economy will create electoral problems for Jackson, who has vowed to govern like Trump and even went so far as saying he aims to become “Trump’s favorite governor”.

But in order to win, Lance-Bottoms will need to convince voters who think Georgia isn’t ready for a Black governor and in particular a Black female governor that she actually can win. Many Democrats remember Stacey Abrams’ trailblazing and historic 2018 run for governor, a race in which she lost to current governor Brian Kemp, who then served as Secretary Of State, essentially overseeing his own election race–a race in which he controversially used his position to purge thousands of voters from the voter rolls prior to the election.

Democrats are still shell-shocked over that loss, especially since Abrams lost that contest by a relatively small number of votes.

This time around, the state’s Black and Democratic voters hope Keisha Lance-Bottoms can beat the odds, silence the doubt, get her voters to the polls, deliver the win, and make history for the state and the country.