Outspent by Rival's $100 Million, Keisha Lance Bottoms Still Confident as Georgia Governor's Race Stays Tied

In the race for governor of the US state of Georgia, Democratic candidate and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is far behind in the money race but is not losing confidence. With less than two weeks to go before Election Day, she maintains that the contest is still tied.

In the election to choose a successor to term-limited Governor Brian Kemp, Bottoms' Republican opponent, Rick Jackson, is a healthcare executive and billionaire.

In an interview with ABC News' Linsey Davis that aired on Thursday, Bottoms said: “My opponent has put over $100 million of his own money in this race. And this race is still tied.”

She added: “I've said repeatedly over the course of this campaign: he has the money, but the people still have the power.”

A poll released on Tuesday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows this year's governor's race statistically tied, with 46% of likely voters supporting Jackson and 45% backing Bottoms.

Georgia has not elected a Democrat as governor since 1998. A Bottoms victory would therefore mark the Democrats' return in the state after nearly three decades.

Jackson declined ABC News' request for an interview. However, his campaign spokesperson Garrison Douglas said in a statement that as Rick travels across the state, engaging with voters directly and answering their questions, the campaign has been running a historic ground game operation alongside its media strategy.

The statement added: “Rick Jackson is not letting up, refusing to be outworked by anyone, and is committed to sharing his story and vision with Georgians every day.”

Bottoms, for her part, has emphasised plans to address affordability — something she says she “didn't need a polling source to tell me.” In addition to suspending taxes on items like diapers and feminine hygiene products and funding an affordable housing trust fund for the state, she detailed a “grocery tax relief plan.”

“It would give local governments the ability to suspend or end the grocery tax, because they are collected by local governments,” Bottoms said.

She also said that as governor she would stand up against the Trump administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies and cuts to federal agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Many of the attacks on Bottoms from her political opponents stem from her time as mayor of Atlanta. She chose not to run for reelection in 2021 after a tumultuous first term in which she faced criticism over her handling of COVID-19 and city crime.

At a rally with President Trump in Dalton, Georgia, last week, Jackson said: “Keisha Lance Bottoms had her chance to lead. The results were disastrous.” He told the crowd: “Bad mayors don't make good governors.”

Bottoms places the blame for the rise in crime rates on the pandemic. She told ABC that just before things shut down she had been touting a reduction in crime in the city; then came the pandemic, and the governor decided to reopen Georgia — so the numbers went up. According to data analysis from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, violent crime increased by 59% in Atlanta from 2019 to 2020, compared with an increase of 33% in other cities during the same period.

Bottoms also responded to criticism for not seeking reelection during that difficult time for the city. She said she completed the four-year term she was elected to serve, calling the 2021 decision “deeply personal” — she had two kids in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school, and was experiencing a number of health issues she had never talked about publicly.

“If I go to bed like my daddy did and I don't wake up, where do I want to spend these four years? And for me, it was wanting to be the best version of myself for my family. So that's very different than quitting,” she added.

If elected in November, Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in US history. She would also be the first woman and the first Black person elected governor in Georgia. Noting that her family goes back at least five generations in Georgia and that she is a descendant of slaves on both sides, she called the potential milestone “much more personal” for her.