Georgia governor’s race: Who’s running in 2026 & where they stand on key issues

(Editor’s note: The video above is from the only debate conducted between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson. It was hosted by Atlanta News First and broadcast statewide across all of Gray Media’s Georgia stations.)

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Georgia voters will choose the state’s next governor in the Nov. 3 midterm election. The governor is the state’s top executive - overseeing state agencies, proposing the state budget, signing or vetoing bills passed by the Legislature, and calling special sessions when needed.

Two challengers are seeking the open seat: Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson.

Keisha Lance Bottoms (D)

Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, served as the city’s 60th mayor from 2018 to 2022, a term that spanned the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Bottoms attended Atlanta Public Schools before earning her undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University and her law degree from Georgia State University, according to her campaign biography.

Before entering elected office, she worked as a prosecutor in Atlanta in the 1990s, represented children in juvenile court, and became a magistrate judge in 2002. She was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 2009 to represent District 11 and was reelected in 2013, according to a Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership case study on her tenure.

She won the 2017 mayoral runoff and became the second Black woman to serve as Atlanta’s mayor. After leaving City Hall, she served from 2022 to 2023 as senior advisor to President Joe Biden for public engagement, leading the White House Office of Public Engagement, according to the White House announcement.

Bottoms says she is running to stand up for Georgia families hurt by what she calls “chaos” from Washington after the 2024 election, according to an interview with Capital B Atlanta.

2026 Georgia voters' guide

2026 is a crucial election year for the Peach State. This year, voters will decide on a new governor, choose who will represent them in the U.S. Senate and participate in a slew of other statewide races and U.S. House races for Georgia’s representatives.

Where she stands, according to her campaign’s issues page:

• Education: Guarantee universal pre-K for 4-year-olds and make kindergarten mandatory. She supports putting casino gaming on the ballot for voter approval, with some revenue dedicated to early learning, along with literacy programs, universal childcare, tax relief for teachers, and expanded access to technical and community colleges.
• Healthcare: Expand Medicaid to replace Georgia Pathways, strengthen rural hospitals and access to care, lower prescription costs, expand maternal and behavioral health care, and repeal Georgia’s abortion ban.
• Housing and household costs: Increase affordable housing supply, speed up permitting, and expand renter and down-payment assistance. She proposes property-tax relief, a homeowners-insurance tax credit, and allowing local governments to suspend or eliminate local sales taxes on groceries and other essentials, with state help to offset lost revenue.
• Jobs, farms, and small businesses: Create a state Office of Small Business and expand business loans and grants. For farmers, she proposes help keeping land in family hands, training and cooperative models, and aid during economic downturns.
• Public safety and government: Increase state support for law enforcement and investigations while investing in violence prevention, diversion, and re-entry programs. She also supports expanded voting access, environmental safeguards, and stronger transparency rules for state contracting and spending.

Rick Jackson (R)

Jackson, a Georgia businessman, is running as a political outsider. He has never held elected office.

According to his campaign biography, Jackson grew up in Atlanta’s Techwood Homes, lived in five foster homes, and attended 13 schools. He says he left college because he could not afford to continue, then worked in commission-based sales before eventually buying the company he worked for.

His campaign says his health care businesses operate in all 50 states and bring in more than $3 billion a year, a business background also described in independent reporting by The Imprint.

Jackson says Georgia needs an outsider focused on results - affordability, lower costs, public safety, and making the government more accountable, according to his campaign biography and action plan.

Where he stands, according to his campaign’s action plan:

• Affordability and taxes: Freeze property taxes. Cut the state income tax in half within four years. Use technology and artificial intelligence to reduce government waste. Freeze tuition, room, and board at public colleges and technical schools.
• Jobs, business, and agriculture: Recruit jobs statewide, support small businesses and entrepreneurs, and expand rural economic opportunity. For farmers, he proposes affordable capital and help negotiating prices for supplies and equipment.
• Health care: Expand rural health care access, use technology to improve services, cut out middlemen, and negotiate better pharmacy rates.
• Education and children: Raise teacher pay, improve childhood literacy, expand career pathways, and support children in poverty. He also wants to strengthen Georgia’s Parents’ Bill of Rights and ban DEI programs in state government, public universities, and classrooms.
• Public assistance and criminal justice: Tie public assistance to work or job training for what he calls “able-bodied” adults. Expand vocational training, support law enforcement, and oppose what he calls “soft-on-crime” policies.
• Foster care: Speed up permanency decisions - the process of finding a child in foster care a permanent home - and improve access to mental-health services.

Information for this story comes from Keisha Lance Bottoms’ campaign biography and issues page, Rick Jackson’s campaign biography and action plan, the White House announcement on Bottoms’ 2022 appointment, a Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership case study on Bottoms, Capital B Atlanta’s interview with Bottoms, and The Imprint’s reporting on Jackson. Early voting information and sample ballots can be found at at Georgia’s My Voter Page.

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