Keisha Lance Bottoms could make history as Georgia governor race comes down to the wire

Recent polling shows little distance between Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson as Georgia voters prepare to choose their next governor.

Keisha Lance Bottoms is campaigning in a Georgia governor race that has tightened to a near dead heat, with the former Atlanta mayor facing Republican Rick Jackson Bottoms, whose historic campaign has already drawn national attention and whose path could depend heavily on Black voter turnout, could become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history if elected.

In an 11Alive interview ahead of the midterms, Bottoms discussed the conversations she has been having with voters as the campaign enters its closing stretch. A separate 11Alive clip posted Sunday said undecided voters could be key to deciding the contest, describing polling in the race as very tight.

Just weeks before election day, the latest public polling supports that description. A Big Data Poll conducted Sept. 21-23 showed Jackson and Bottoms tied at 50% each after leaners were included. An InsiderAdvantage survey conducted Sept. 22-23 put Jackson at 48% and Bottoms at 46%. The RealClearPolling average has Jackson at 47.2% and Bottoms at 46.5%, a difference of less than one percentage point.

Those numbers leave little room between the candidates as both try to persuade voters who have not firmly settled on a choice. Earlier polling has shifted between narrow leads for Bottoms, ties and small Jackson advantages, underscoring how unsettled the contest remains.

The stakes are historic for Bottoms. If she wins, she would become Georgia’s first Black governor, the first Black woman elected governor anywhere in the United States and the first Democrat to win Georgia’s governor’s office since 1998.

Bottoms has recently emphasized affordability, health care, education and other pocketbook concerns while campaigning across the state. Jackson, a health care executive, is seeking to keep the governor’s office under Republican control after winning the GOP nomination earlier this year.

With Election Day set for Nov. 3, the Georgia governor race remains close enough that even small shifts among undecided voters could matter during the final weeks.