The Ex-Mayor vs. the Billionaire: The Fiercest Governor’s Race in the South

In a dead-heat contest, GOP’s Rick Jackson is hammering Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms over Atlanta’s 2020 unrest, while she ties him to President Trump. MORROW, Ga.—Former President Barack Obama rallied in Atlanta Wednesday night for Democratic candidates, including Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up big in many polls over Republican Mike Collins.Republican US Senate candidate Mike Collins speaks ahead of the midterm elections at Georgia Highlands Student Center in Cartersville, Georgia, US, October 27, 2026. (REUTERS)But Obama devoted much of his remarks to praising another contender on the stage: former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is neck and neck with Republican Billionaire Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor’s race.“I’ve seen how much she cares about other people, how deeply she understands the pain people are feeling now,” Obama told a crowd of thousands, who interrupted him to chant “Keisha!” “I know she will fight for you every day.”As Election Day nears, the battle for Georgia’s top job has become one of America’s fiercest state showdowns. It is one of only four tossups among 36 gubernatorial races, according to the Cook Political Report. Bottoms is vying to become the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history and reclaim an office Republicans have held for 23 years.Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, Bottoms and former President Barack Obama at a rally in Morrow, Ga.“It’s still anybody’s race,” said Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political science professor. Each candidate can point to a recent poll showing them narrowly ahead.Overall early-voting turnout has set records for a Georgia midterm so far, and top party surrogates are descending on the state. President Trump has campaigned with Jackson in recent days, calling the businessman a “great patriot” who would boost Georgia’s economy.Republicans have dominated here for decades, but Democrats have made advances in the South in recent years, aided, many argue, by demographic shifts: growing minority populations and an influx of transplants. Presidential elections have swung in Georgia: Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2024, and Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Running for governor, Stacey Abrams lost twice to Republican Brian Kemp, who is now term-limited.Democrats have dispatched Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, actor Kerry Washington and Obama. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is sending Bottoms’ campaign $1 million, a move earlier reported by Politico.Both candidates are focusing on topics the other wants to avoid. Jackson, a 72-year-old political newcomer, has poured tens of millions into his own campaign, including on attack ads blaming Bottoms, 56, for crime and unrest after George Floyd’s murder, during her mayoral tenure, which lasted one term after she decided not to seek re-election. A recent Jackson flier declared, “As Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms LET ATLANTA BURN.”Bottoms has accused Jackson of cozying up to Trump, including pledging to be his “favorite governor” in the primary, only to distance himself as the president’s ratings fell. In their only debate, in early October, Jackson didn’t mention Trump. She has also criticized Jackson’s legal fights and business interests.At a Trump rally in Dalton, Ga., Trump lauded Jackson, while Jackson praised Kemp, who remains popular and who famously defied Trump’s calls to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.President Trump with Jackson at a rally in Perry, Ga.Georgia supporters listen as Trump speaks.Early-voting data so far shows moderate turnout in many traditionally Republican areas and increased turnout in Democratic-leaning counties. Jackson’s campaign has ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts in recent days. He initially said he would skip an Oct. 24 Trump rally in Perry, Ga., then reversed course and praised the president onstage.On the trail, both gubernatorial candidates have opened up about personal and professional challenges.Bottoms grew up comfortably in Atlanta, but her father, Major Lance, a hit soul singer who performed on “American Bandstand,” fell into addiction. At age 8, she watched police lead him away in handcuffs on cocaine charges.“On Saturdays, my favorite thing to do used to be to go to ballet lessons, and that was replaced most weekends, if we had enough gas money, by going to see my dad in prison,” Bottoms told voters in Ringgold, a town in conservative northwest Georgia.Crises marked her time as mayor. When Floyd protests turned destructive downtown, she pleaded in a live address: “This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos…If you care about this city, then go home.”A campaign event for Bottoms in Rome, Ga.The moment raised her national profile, though critics blamed Bottoms for not acting quickly enough to tame violence, including the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl who was riding in an SUV near a protest site. Bottoms has spoken of the heartbreak of that tragedy. In 2021, she stood before cameras, her voice quaking, and said she wouldn’t seek a second term as Atlanta’s mayor. She later served as an adviser in the Biden White House.Rodney Bryant, who led Atlanta’s police force from 2020 to 2022, said Bottoms made public safety a daily priority. “She never hesitated to provide public safety leaders with the resources we needed to do our jobs,” he said.In an interview, Bottoms said she remains proud of her mayoral record, including boosting first responders’ pay and balancing the budget without raising property taxes but wishes she had communicated her decisions better. “Part of the challenge,” she said, “was there was no blueprint for 2020.”Bottoms makes a campaign stop in Rome, Ga.She is campaigning on lowering living costs, including by expanding Medicaid, while Jackson has said he would cut state income taxes and bring in jobs.Jackson spent part of his youth in Atlanta’s housing projects with an alcoholic mother and ended up in foster care; he didn’t attend college. “I know what it’s like to have nothing,” he told the crowd at the Dalton rally. “I know what it’s like to suffer.” He later built a healthcare staffing empire and expanded into film production, data-center investments and a Texas oil-refinery project, among other ventures.Michael Skerritt, a retired accountant at that rally, said he volunteered for Jackson’s campaign after hearing how the candidate rose from foster care and wants to help others in “a system that’s broken.” “That swayed me big time,” Skerritt said.Jackson still faces friction from a tough primary against Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also clashed with Trump over the 2020 election. Jones and Jackson traded accusations of corruption, bitterness that outlasted Jackson’s runoff win this summer.Write to Cameron McWhirter at Cameron.McWhirter@wsj.comStay updated with US News covering politics, crime, weather, local events, and sports highlights. Get the latest on Donald Trump and American politics along with Horoscope 2026.