Ossoff gains re-election; Bottoms nation’s first African-American female governor; challenger leads commission race

By Carlton Fletcher & Kathryn Crockett

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ALBANY – Georgia became part of a historic blue wave that swept the nation Tuesday, returning a sitting Democratic senator to Washington and electing the nation’s first-ever African American female governor.

NBC News projected Keisha Lance Bottoms as the winner of the governor’s race at 9:05 p.m., her lead over Republican Rick Jackson too much for the tide to turn.

Meanwhile, Sen Jon Ossoff easily dispatched Republican challenger Mike Collins, earning the projection as Senator-elect only 30 minutes after polls in the state closed. At around 11 p.m., Bottoms had 55% of the gubernatorial vote, while Ossoff hovered around 60%.

The Democratic groundswell that swept the nation apparently made its way into Dougherty County as well, as Democratic challenger Anthony Patterson held a sizable lead over Republican incumbent Russell Gray for the District 5 Dougherty County Commission seat.

Bottoms’ victory ends more than two decades of Republican control of the governor’s office. The former Atlanta mayor will succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was term-limited..

The victory followed repeated campaign visits to southwest Georgia, where Bottoms emphasized rural investment, health care access and education. She visited Albany on May 15 during her “Our Rights, Our Future” tour, on the final day of early voting before the primary, and returned on Saturday, three days before winning office..

During an Oct. 16 appearance at Albany’s Hilton Garden Inn, Bottoms addressed about 210 people after an introduction by former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, an Albany resident. The event encouraged supporters to vote across the street at the Albany Civic Center.

“We came by today to say we haven’t forgotten about you, Albany,” Bottoms told the crowd. “We need you, Albany.”

In an interview with The Albany Herald during that visit, Bottoms said improving student literacy would require adequate school funding, a voice for parents and literacy coaches in every school.

She also called for reducing diesel costs, supporting cooperatives to help farmers obtain better prices on supplies and expanding broadband and business opportunities in rural communities.

Republicans made their own closing appeal to southwest Georgia on Monday, when Kemp and Jackson appeared at the Albany Jet Center at Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

Jackson conceded Tuesday night.

“Tonight the voters spoke. And I respect their decision,” he said in his remarks.

Bottoms served as Atlanta’s mayor from 2018 to 2022, leading the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and protests following the killing of George Floyd. She declined to seek a second term and later served as an adviser to President Biden.

Her victory returns the governor’s office to Democrats for the first time since Roy Barnes won election in 1998. Barnes lost his re-election bid to Republican Sonny Perdue in 2002.

Ossoff said Tuesday’s election showed that time for change in America had arrived.

“In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame-duck president Donald J. Trump,” Ossoff said in his victory speech. “And if, at times these last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our republic would survive, let tonight’s results give you courage that the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”

Issues at the Dougherty County elections office delayed a final vote in the Dougherty commission race, but Patterson had a commanding – but unofficial – 1,197-814 lead over the incumbent at 11:30 p.m.

The evening belonged to Democrats, as the nation emphatically let President Trump and Republican leaders know they were not satisfied with policies that have the cost of living skyrocketing and the ongoing war with Iran that has gas and diesel prices at their highest levels ever raging on even as the president promised time after time that the war was ending.

Returns were still coming in at 11 p.m., but one thing had become certain: There would be a new world order in Washington in 2027. Experts projected that Democrats would easily gain control of the House in ‘27 by a margin projected to be as large as 248-187. Democrats gained the four Senate “flips” – in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Ohio – needed to take control of the upper chamber before the polls even closed in some Western states.

Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Annie Andrews in South Carolina, James Talarico in Texas and Sherrod Brown in Ohio won their elections to assure Democrats would have a majority in the Senate, even as other seats that were too close to call appeared to be headed toward Democrats as well.

The Albany Herald will update election results as returns become available.