Over the past several weeks, former Atlanta mayor and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms has announced a suite of policy proposals addressing three of the most contentious issues in the 2026 election: affordability, government ethics, and data centers.
The rollouts come as polls show a tight race between Bottoms and her Republican opponent, billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson, with one poll giving Bottoms a narrow edge. A win would make Bottoms Georgia’s first Democratic governor since 1998 and its first Black woman elected to the office.
Addressing the affordability crisis
Both candidates are working to differentiate themselves on the cost of living, which voters say is their top issue this cycle.
During a campaign stop at Al Huda Grocery in Lawrenceville on Wednesday, Bottoms unveiled a Local Grocery and Family Essentials Tax Relief Plan that would let cities and counties eliminate or temporarily suspend their local sales taxes on groceries and other essentials, including baby formula, diapers, and feminine hygiene products.
“I remember those days standing in line at the grocery store with my mother, and even as a college student, where you fill your cart up, you take it to the register, and when you see the total, you immediately begin to put items back one by one, trying to get down to the amount that you have in your pocket,” Bottoms said.
The plan would create a $250 million Local Tax Relief Stabilization Fund for cities and counties, enabling them to provide relief for families without losing tax revenue. Removing the sales tax could help the lowest-income families, who have been hit hardest by rising costs due to inflation, tariffs, and the war in Iran.
“We don’t necessarily control grocery prices, especially in this Trump economy. We have these crazy tariffs and unnecessary wars, but what we can do is we can still give relief to Georgians, and that’s exactly what this potential legislation does,” Senate Minority leader Harold Jones said .
Jackson has pursued a different approach to affordability. At an earlier event at Tommy’s Barbershop in Atlanta, he proposed eliminating state taxes on electricity and natural gas delivered to homes and apartments. He has also proposed freezing property taxes immediately and cutting the state income tax. However, critics of similar policies, including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, have noted that broad property tax cuts do little for renters, who have been hit hardest by rising housing costs and don’t pay property taxes directly.
A battle over ethics
In addition to affordability, voters have expressed widespread concern about what they see as a growing pattern of self-enrichment in local, state, and federal governments. A record 89% of Americans now believe that corruption in government is widespread, according to Gallup.
To address these concerns, Bottoms released a six-point ethics platform, called the “Insiders Out, Taxpayers First Ethics Plan,” that takes direct aim at Jackson. Among its provisions, the plan would bar a sitting governor from holding a controlling financial stake in any company with state contracts, require gubernatorial candidates to divest such interests once they qualify to run, and close what Bottoms calls the “Jackson loophole” by ending lucrative no-bid contracts.
The plan follows months of scrutiny over Jackson’s business ties to the state.
Companies owned by Jackson have brought in nearly $1 billion from state agencies since fiscal year 2020, most of it through medical staffing contracts with the Department of Community Health, including a roughly $700 million no-bid contract awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson pledged in March to “unwind” his companies’ financial ties to the state if elected, but an 11Alive investigation found one of his companies had instead signed a multimillion-dollar contract extension with a state agency. Jackson has since said any state contracts held by his companies would be terminated by the end of the year if he’s elected governor.
Regulating data centers
Bottoms has also called to regulate data centers. During multiple events and interviews over the last week, Bottoms has demanded a “pause” on construction of the enormous facilities.
The issue has become a flashpoint statewide: Bills aimed at reining in new data center development had bipartisan support in this year’s legislative session but failed to reach the governor’s desk, and a recent survey by Science for Georgia found 83% of Georgians supported a statewide moratorium on data centers. Outgoing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has criticized Bottoms’ position, warning that a moratorium could threaten the state’s economic growth.
Jackson has staked out a more permissive position, arguing that individual communities—not the state—should decide whether to host data centers, and that the projects can bring economic benefits like reduced property taxes if “negotiated correctly with guardrails.” In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed, Jackson wrote that “data centers must have local support, provide a clear local benefit, pay their own way and meet strong environmental standards.”
Bottoms has repeatedly noted that Jackson has disclosed an ownership stake in a data center in Texas, using it to question his objectivity on the issue.
At a recent press conference, Bottoms asked, “How can you trust a man who has a financial stake in data centers to tell us where we need to go with data centers?”
