Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Georgia governor race, Donalds takes Florida #Elections2026 By Luís Henrique Costa
3 min read
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Voters in Georgia and Florida chose their next governors on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, according to projections from the Associated Press. In Atlanta, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Republican Rick Jackson and became the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. She is also the first Democrat to win the state’s highest office since 1998.
In Tallahassee, Republican U.S. Representative Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly in a close count. With 98% of votes counted, Donalds led by 1.3 percentage points when the AP called the race shortly after 9 p.m. Donalds, an early ally of President Donald Trump, will be Florida’s first Black governor, extending a Republican hold on the office that dates to 1998.
Bottoms’s win gives Democrats control of Georgia’s governor’s office alongside the re-election of Senator Jon Ossoff. Her campaign built on years of voter registration and community organizing led by former state lawmaker Stacey Abrams, which pushed up minority turnout in southern suburbs and college towns. In Florida, Donalds held off a split among moderates led by Jolly by mobilizing rural voters and older residents.
Four incumbent governors win new terms in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland
Four governors already in office were re-elected in the night’s results, with races spread across the Northeast, Midwest and South. Each of them won against the opposition in their state.
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- Josh Shapiro (Democrat, Pennsylvania): re-elected over Republican Stacy Garrity
- JB Pritzker (Democrat, Illinois): re-elected to a third term
- Maura Healey (Democrat, Massachusetts): re-elected to a second term
- Wes Moore (Democrat, Maryland): re-elected to a second term
Senate seats decided, with Jon Ossoff and Roy Cooper among the winners
Races for the Senate, the upper house of Congress, delivered milestones in representation and kept several contested seats in the hands of their parties. Several incumbents also won another six-year term without major trouble in their states.
- Jon Ossoff (Democrat, Georgia): re-elected over Republican Mike Collins
- Juliana Stratton (Democrat, Illinois): elected to the seat left by Dick Durbin, joining Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks as Black women serving in the Senate at the same time
- Chris Pappas (Democrat, New Hampshire): won over Republican John Sununu
- Roy Cooper (Democrat, North Carolina): defeated Republican Michael Whatley
- Edward Markey (Democrat, Massachusetts), Jack Reed (Democrat, Rhode Island), Cory Booker (Democrat, New Jersey) and Chris Coons (Democrat, Delaware): re-elected
- Mark Warner (Democrat, Virginia): re-elected over Republican Bert Mizusawa
- Ashley Moody (Republican, Florida): kept her seat by defeating Democrat Angie Nixon
Debbie Wasserman Schultz wins 12th term in Florida’s 20th district
Results in densely populated districts also settled several House seats. In Florida, Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz was re-elected to her 12th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, beating Republican Brent Andersen in the 20th district.
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South Carolina Senate race still being counted with Andrews ahead
The count in South Carolina had not finished when this report was prepared. Democrat Annie Andrews held a lead of about nine points over Republican Darline Graham, with more than two-thirds of the votes counted in the race for the seat left open by Lindsey Graham.
When the new governors and Congress take office in 2027
The results are not final until the count ends. Local election boards and state secretaries of state are checking ballots that arrived by mail, following each state’s rules.
- Governors: swearing-in ceremonies take place in the first half of January 2027, as set by each state’s constitution
- Florida: Byron Donalds will be sworn in as the state’s 47th governor on January 5, 2027
- Congress: senators and representatives elected take their seats in Washington on January 3, 2027
