Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Rick Jackson 54.3% to 45.7%. She took 82.6% in Atlanta's Fulton precincts, and Ossoff won 59% statewide.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served as Atlanta’s 60th mayor, won the race for governor of Georgia on Tuesday. Atlanta voters backed her by more than 4 to 1.
Bottoms, a Democrat, received 2,268,462 votes, or 54.3%. Republican Rick Jackson received 1,908,261, or 45.7%. Her margin was 360,201 votes.
The figures come from the Georgia Secretary of State’s unofficial results, with all 2,581 precincts in all 159 counties reporting as of early Wednesday. They stay unofficial until the counties and then the state certify them.
Bottoms was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 2, 2018, and had earlier served as a judge and a member of the Atlanta City Council, according to her campaign biography.
How Atlanta voted
Atlanta spans two counties. The state’s results file reports Fulton County precinct by precinct, and 180 of Fulton’s 437 precincts are inside the city. They are the precincts that did not vote on the Fulton transportation sales tax, which was on the ballot only outside Atlanta.
In those 180 precincts:
| Race | Democrat | Republican |
|---|---|---|
| Governor | Keisha Lance Bottoms, 82.6% | Rick Jackson, 17.4% |
| U.S. Senate | Jon Ossoff, 88.0% | Mike Collins, 12.0% |
| Lieutenant governor | Josh McLaurin, 84.9% | Greg Dolezal, 15.1% |
| Attorney general | Tanya Miller, 84.3% | Brian Strickland, 15.7% |
Bottoms received 156,908 votes in those precincts to Jackson’s 33,058. Across all of Fulton County she took 73.8%, and in DeKalb County 84.8%. The state does not separate the part of Atlanta that lies in DeKalb County, so those votes are counted in the DeKalb total only.
Advance voting carried her
Jackson won more of the votes cast on Election Day itself, 742,344 to 616,406. Bottoms won the votes cast before it. She took 1,566,407 advance in-person votes to Jackson’s 1,115,963, and 85,597 mail ballots to his 49,896, the state’s results show.
Democrats won every statewide race
Democrats won all 11 statewide offices on the ballot, in the state’s unofficial count:
- U.S. Senate: Jon Ossoff 59.0%, Mike Collins 41.0%
- Lieutenant governor: Josh McLaurin 55.9%, Greg Dolezal 44.1%
- Secretary of state: Penny Brown Reynolds 55.7%, Tim Fleming 44.3%
- Attorney general: Tanya Miller 55.5%, Brian Strickland 44.5%
- School superintendent: Lydia Powell 54.6%, Richard Woods 45.4%
- Agriculture commissioner: Katherine E. Juhan-Arnold 53.8%, Tyler Harper 46.2%
- Insurance commissioner: Keisha Sean Waites 54.3%, John King 45.7%
- Labor commissioner: Nikki Porcher 54.6%, Bárbara Rivera Holmes 45.4%
- Public Service Commission, District 3: Peter Hubbard 56.4%, Fitz Johnson 43.6%
- Public Service Commission, District 5: Shelia Edwards 55.3%, Josh Tolbert 44.7%
Ossoff’s margin was 751,810 votes. The ballot listed Woods, Harper, King, Rivera Holmes and Hubbard as incumbents.
In Congress, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the incumbent, won reelection in the 5th District. She took 92.5% of the district’s Fulton County vote and 86.6% of its DeKalb County vote.
Fulton County Commission
Fulton County voters also chose county commissioners:
- Chair: Mo Ivory, a Democrat, 75.0%, to Eric J. Tatum, a Republican, 25.0%
- District 3: Jodi Merriday, a Democrat, 64.2%, to Paul Burton, a Republican, 35.8%
- District 4 special election: Rohit Malhotra 66.8%, ahead of Aaron A. Sampson Jr. with 24.5%, Natalie Hall with 6.2% and Karen Rene with 2.6%
- District 5: Helen Zenobia Willis, a Democrat, 94.6%, to Tiffany A. Henyard, a Republican, 5.4%
The amendments and the school tax
All three proposed amendments to the Georgia Constitution passed statewide. The state’s amendment summaries booklet (PDF), as posted by Augusta’s elections board, describes them this way:
| Amendment | What it does | Georgia | Atlanta’s Fulton precincts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raises the farmland conservation-use tax break cap from 2,000 to 4,000 acres | 53.9% yes | 44.8% yes |
| 2 | Makes probate judge elections nonpartisan | 68.4% yes | 61.9% yes |
| 3 | Lets lawmakers set aside revenue for 911 systems | 77.7% yes | 78.5% yes |
Atlanta’s Fulton precincts voted against Amendment 1, 100,063 to 81,179. So did Fulton County as a whole, at 52.0% no, and DeKalb County, at 54.1% no.
Fulton County’s education sales tax question passed with 68.4% countywide. Atlanta’s Fulton precincts voted 73.0% for it. The Fulton County Board of Education asked voters for a five-year extension of the existing tax.
What it means for you
- Nothing is final yet. Fulton and DeKalb counties must certify their counts before the state does. Totals can still shift slightly before then.
- Check your own races. The Secretary of State’s results page shows every contest, down to your state House and Senate districts.
- Plan for the next election. Our voting guide covers how to check your registration and find your polling place.
- Your property tax bill is not changed by these results. Our property tax guide explains this year’s bills and the state’s homeowner grant.
Our earlier coverage: the Ossoff and Collins debate and record early voting in Fulton County.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the Georgia governor’s race in 2026?
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, won with 2,268,462 votes, or 54.3%, to 1,908,261, or 45.7%, for Republican Rick Jackson, according to unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State with all 2,581 precincts reporting.
How did Atlanta vote for governor?
In the 180 Fulton County precincts inside the city of Atlanta, Bottoms received 156,908 votes, or 82.6%, and Jackson received 33,058, or 17.4%. The state’s results do not separate the city’s DeKalb County precincts.
Did Jon Ossoff win reelection?
Yes. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff won 59.0% of the vote to 41.0% for U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a margin of 751,810 votes, in the state’s unofficial results.
Are the results final?
No. All results are unofficial until counties and then the state certify them.
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