Let Young People See What’s Possible: Keisha Lance Bottoms Makes Georgia History

I keep thinking about the young person who looks at the people in charge and wonders whether their skin color has already decided how far they can go.

At Full Bloom, making space for Black faces is about more than who I am. It’s about what a young person can imagine when they see someone who looks like them in a place they may have been told they don’t belong.

On November 3, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s race for governor. Her victory makes her the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. state, and the first woman elected governor of Georgia. That is a historic first. It is also an image young people deserve to see: a Black woman stepping into one of the highest offices in the country.

Bottoms’ path to this moment includes serving as Atlanta’s mayor and later as a senior adviser in the Biden administration. Her win also comes after years of organizing and coalition building in Georgia, including the work around Stacey Abrams’ campaigns. History is made in a moment, but the work behind that moment takes many people showing up over time.

As a mom I truly believe this changes what a young person can point to when they’re imagining their own future. They can see that the governor’s office is a place someone like them can enter.

That is why this story belongs in Full Bloom. I want young people who have wondered whether their skin color limits their future to see this moment clearly and to know that their future is still theirs to shape.

Editorial credits Written by Full Bloom Magazine

Reporting reference: Kat Stafford, Reuters, November 4, 2026.

Read the Reuters report

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