Overview:
As Democrats gained ground nationally, two Black candidates made history in the South. Bottoms broke a barrier that generations of Black women worked to overcome, while Donalds secured a notable Republican victory in Florida.
History was made in two Southern states Tuesday night, as voters elected a Black woman governor for the first time in American history and sent a Black Republican to the governor’s mansion in Florida.
But the victories of Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and Republican Byron Donalds in Florida told two very different stories about race, political power and the direction of the country.
Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, defeated billionaire Republican businessman Rick Jackson, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of any U.S. state. Her victory also ended 24 years of Republican control of Georgia’s highest office.
Donalds, a congressman and staunch ally of President Donald Trump, narrowly defeated Democrat David Jolly to become Florida’s first Black governor. He bucked a national trend that saw Democrats make significant gains, fueled in part by dissatisfaction with Trump’s second administration.
For Bottoms, 56, the victory represented more than a political comeback. It was the culmination of years of organizing by Black women, particularly Stacey Abrams, whose unsuccessful campaigns for governor in 2018 and 2022 helped transform Georgia into a competitive political battleground.
Abrams lost twice to Republican Brian Kemp. But the voter registration drives, grassroots organizing and turnout operations that grew around her campaigns helped lay the groundwork for Democratic victories, including Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win and the election of two Democratic U.S. senators.
Bottoms built on that foundation, assembling a coalition of Black voters, metropolitan Atlanta residents and Georgians frustrated with Republican leadership. She campaigned on expanding Medicaid, increasing the minimum wage, improving public education and protecting abortion rights.
Jackson, a healthcare entrepreneur, spent more than $200 million of his personal fortune trying to defeat her, according to the Associated Press. He repeatedly attacked her record as Atlanta mayor, particularly her handling of crime and the protests that followed the police killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks in 2020.
Bottoms countered by tying Jackson to Trump and arguing that Georgia needed a governor focused on the needs of ordinary families.
During the candidates’ only debate, she contrasted her ambitions with Jackson’s stated desire to become Trump’s favorite governor.
“I’m not running to be his favorite governor,” she said. “I’m running to work on behalf of people like you.”
The election also carried a deeply personal significance for Bottoms, whose Georgia ancestry stretches back at least five generations, to relatives enslaved on a plantation in Crawfordville. On the eve of the election, she visited their graves.
Now, generations after her ancestors endured slavery in Georgia, she will become the state’s first woman governor and its first Black governor.
Across the state line, Donalds, 48, made history of his own, defeating Jolly, a former Republican congressman who switched parties after breaking with Trump.
The victory extended nearly three decades of Republican control of Florida’s governorship. But Donalds won by fewer than two percentage points, a far cry from the nearly 20-point margin by which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection in 2022.
That narrow margin was notable in a state where Republicans enjoy a substantial voter registration advantage and where Trump won comfortably in 2024.
Donalds was among Trump’s most visible Black supporters in Congress, frequently defending the president on television and backing his political agenda. Trump endorsed him more than a year before Election Day, helping clear his path through the Republican primary.
Although Donalds emphasized his own policy priorities during the general election, his political identity remained closely associated with Trump’s MAGA movement. He campaigned on reducing property taxes, lowering insurance costs, addressing housing affordability and maintaining Florida’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.
His victory came against a difficult national backdrop for Republicans.
Democrats scored gains in several states and competitive districts as voters registered frustration with rising living costs, the war with Iran and Trump’s leadership. Florida resisted that broader trend, even as Jolly made the race substantially closer than the state’s previous gubernatorial contest.
Donalds’ election also made him the first Black Republican elected governor in American history, underscoring the growing visibility of Black conservatives in a party whose electoral coalition remains overwhelmingly white.
The two victories offer a study in contrasts.
Bottoms’ win reflects the political organizing power of Black women, who have long been central to Democratic success but have rarely occupied the highest executive offices. Donalds’ election demonstrates that Black political representation is not confined to the Democratic Party, even when it means embracing a president whose policies have drawn sustained criticism from civil rights organizations.
Both will inherit states facing serious challenges involving healthcare, education, housing and affordability. Both will have to deliver on campaign promises while navigating legislatures and political constituencies that may not always share their priorities.
And both will be judged not simply by the barriers they broke, but by what they accomplish with the power voters have given them.
For Bottoms, that means translating a historic Democratic victory into lasting change in a state where Republicans remain influential. For Donalds, it means delivering for Florida voters while navigating the political fortunes of the president who helped make his candidacy possible.
Their victories have already earned them a place in the history books. What they do next will determine how that history is written.
