Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms made her case to Atlanta voters Sunday night before a packed room in Midtown, fielding questions from moderator Don Lemon and audience members at Courier Georgia’s “On the Ballot” event, five weeks before Election Day.
Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, is seeking to become the first Democrat elected governor of Georgia since Roy Barnes won in 1998. She said the moment is right.
“This year we’ve seen motivation on the Democratic side in ways we’ve not seen in decades,” she said.
The race for the open seat is close. With Gov. Brian Kemp (R) barred by term limits from seeking another term, the contest has become one of the most closely watched in the country, and an InsiderAdvantage poll found Republican nominee Rick Jackson and Bottoms in a virtual tie among likely voters.
Healthcare at the center
Much of the conversation focused on the issue that has defined Bottoms’ campaign: lowering the cost of healthcare and expanding access to it.
Georgia ranks 49th in healthcare in WalletHub’s 2026 report, which measures the cost and quality of care. It is also one of 10 states that have not fully expanded Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that covers healthcare for low-income people.
“Not only are our rates of uninsured [people] very high, but we have some of the highest insurance rates in the country,” Bottoms said.
She said 600,000 Georgians have dropped their health insurance since the beginning of the year, which she blamed on the federal tax and spending law that Democrats have nicknamed the “Big Ugly Bill.”
“This is something that we should not be proud of in this state,” she said.
Before the event, voters described their own struggles with the cost of care, including going into debt to pay for essentials.
“Georgia Medicaid doesn’t pay for eye care, dental care, or even supplies to help use the bathroom,” said Karen Loraine Webb Phillips, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair. She said Medicaid expansion is her top concern heading into the midterm elections.
Closing the ‘Rick Jackson loophole’
When Lemon asked about corruption and insider dealing in Washington, Bottoms turned the conversation to the governor’s race, where ethics have become a central fight.
Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive who beat Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Republican runoff in June, has spent more than $140 million on ads this cycle, many attacking Bottoms’ record as mayor. One accused the city of paying for her husband, Derek W. Bottoms, to fly first class to the Super Bowl. Bottoms has said she reported the charge as soon as she learned of it, called it a mistake, and repaid the money.
Some attendees said the spending was meant to distract from Jackson’s own record.
“You have to spend that much money when you’re a liar, when you’re a deceiver,” said Jina. “When you don’t have credibility, you use the money.”
Bottoms pointed to Jackson’s business with the state, saying he holds “a $700 million no-bid contract that he got in 2020 that has expanded yearly.”
“He said he would ‘unwind’ his business with the state, but he just extended one of those contracts,” she said.
Her proposed fix for what she calls the “Rick Jackson loophole” would require candidates to end their state contracts once they qualify to run for office.
Jackson has said he would cancel the newly extended contract if elected.
“There’s a 30-day out,” he told reporters in August. “If I’m elected on Nov. 3, the next day, it will be terminated.”
No Georgia law requires him to do so.
Will Tanya Miller be Georgia’s next Attorney General?
State Rep. Tanya Miller, the Democratic nominee for Georgia attorney general, joined Bottoms and Lemon onstage for the second half of the event.
Miller focused on how the attorney general’s office can help lower costs for Georgians. She pointed to rent-setting software, which has drawn lawsuits from attorneys general in several states. Those attorneys general have alleged that using nonpublic data gathered by AI to set rental prices amounts to price-fixing.
“There are AGs all across this country that have instituted litigation against AI to artificially increase rental rates beyond what the market would bear,” she said. “These companies are supposed to compete with each other so that you get the best rate, not conspire to keep rates artificially high.”
She also described the office as the “people’s lawyer,” saying it can play a role in stopping backroom deals between technology companies and local officials over AI.
‘Let’s be powerful’
The night ended on a solemn note when Lemon asked both candidates what message they had for Black women, who he said are experiencing layoffs and job losses at rates comparable to those faced by white women during the Great Recession.
Bottoms urged women to put on their own oxygen masks first.
“Strong women push through and they have high blood pressure. They have heart attacks. They have strokes, and they die. Powerful women stop and they feel and they process and they learn the lessons. And only then do they move on,” she said. “We don’t have to be strong. Let’s be powerful.”
The general election is Nov. 3.
