[U.S. Midterm Elections] Georgia in the South elects its first-ever Black woman governor

[Financial News] For the first time in U.S. history, a Black woman has become governor in Georgia, a state in the American South with a deep-rooted history of persecution of Black people.
On the 3rd (local time), local media outlets, including the Associated Press, reported, citing the Georgia state government, that Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms had won the governorship in that day's midterm elections. The state government said that with 78% of the votes counted, Bottoms had received 1,895,900 votes (55%), well ahead of Republican candidate Rick Jackson, who had 1,560,425 votes (45%). The AP declared Bottoms the winner at 9:24 p.m. that day.
Bottoms graduated from Georgia State University College of Law and served as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, for four years starting in 2018. While in office, she focused on the pandemic response during the spread of COVID-19 and dealt with protests and violence related to “Black Lives Matter” in 2020. After leaving office as mayor, she served as a senior adviser at the White House under the Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. administration.
Bottoms is the first Democrat in 23 years to be elected governor of Georgia. Republicans had long controlled the governorship and state legislature in Georgia, at the heart of the conservative belt in the South. Rick Jackson, the Republican candidate in this election, is a healthcare industry businessman who spent $200 million of his personal fortune on his campaign.
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