Black Georgians are heading to the polls in far greater numbers than in the last midterm election, with young Black voters leading a surge in early participation ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.
According to early voting figures, 889,780 Black Georgians cast ballots in person between Oct. 13 and Oct. 30, a 29% increase from the 685,478 recorded in 2022. Black voters accounted for 32.9% of early in-person ballots, compared with 30% four years ago. Among Black Georgians younger than 30, participation jumped 79%, with 119,946 casting early ballots.
The increase comes as Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms seeks to become the first Black woman elected governor in American history.
Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms faces Republican businessman Rick Jackson in a closely watched contest that could shape the future of voting rights and political representation in Georgia.
🇺🇸 With the #US midterm elections set for November 3 swiftly approaching, author and activist Scotty Smart is crisscrossing the streets of #Atlanta, Georgia, to get Black voters to the polling booth. Facing widespread voter abstention, Smart is determined to turn civic engagement into a force for change. #UnitedStates #Atlanta #Midterms
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) October 28, 2026
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder believes the outcome could have consequences beyond the governor’s office.
“I can’t emphasize this enough…the election of Keisha Lance Bottoms is critical to preventing a whole range of things that Republicans want to do, and among them is racial gerrymandering,” Holder told theGrio.
“If a Republican legislature decides they want to racially gerrymander Georgia and Keisha Lance Bottoms is the governor, guess what she can do? She can veto.”
Holder, who founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in 2017, has worked to challenge congressional maps that weaken Black political representation.
“People’s consciousness has been raised as they saw their political power being diminished, and then seeing what that meant,” he explained.
Bottoms has also faced attacks from Republicans over her leadership during the 2020 protests in Atlanta. Jackson has repeatedly criticized her record as mayor, declaring, “Bad mayors don’t make good governors.”
President Donald Trump joined those attacks during an October rally, claiming Bottoms “destroyed Atlanta with her crime and filth and constant riots.”
Bottoms has pushed back against those accusations.
“It’s a long-standing playbook to paint Atlanta as this big bad place,” she responded.
During a recent campaign appearance with former President Barack Obama, Bottoms recalled passing the Georgia Governor’s Mansion as a child.
“I want to go in there one day,” she remembered thinking.
Now, she hopes to enter the mansion on behalf of “little boys and girls all across Georgia who are counting on their governor.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s campaign organization has invested $3.6 million in the Georgia Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign, which established 30 field offices and hired more than 140 staffers.
KAMALA HARRIS DROPS INTO GEORGIA TO STUMP FOR OSSEFF DOWN BALLOT DEMOCRATS. Former VP, Kamala Harris, and Sen Jon Ossoff urged young voters at Atlanta’s historical black colleges and universities to make their way to the polls as early voting wraps up. Over 800 students from Clark Atlanta Morehouse College, and Spelman College gather to see Harris and Ossoff who is up for reelection and is fighting off a challenge from Republican congressman Mike Collins
— SANTINO (@TheRealSantino) October 30, 2026
The early voting increase extends beyond Atlanta, with Black participation rising in more than 145 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Among Black voters ages 30 to 44, early turnout climbed 31%. Participation among Black Georgians 65 and older increased 40%.
