The power and prominence of Black women in the Georgia Democratic Party was on full display Friday night as former Vice President Kamala Harris made the case to make Keisha Lance Bottoms the first African-American governor in U.S. history.
One of the 2028 presidential frontrunners delivered her address to roughly 700 Democratic party officials, staffers and volunteers during the annual “Fulton Forward” banquet and fundraiser inside the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
Harris echoed the accusations of corruption and broken campaign promises leveled against President Donald Trump by former President Barack Obama during his Wednesday visit to nearby Morrow, Georgia.
Harris said Americans she’s spoken to throughout the country have told her they’re fed up with Trump’s indifference to their economic suffering.
“When it comes to this president and this party, people are done,” Harris said. They are done with the Republican party’s broken promises to bring down costs on day one, especially when the cost of gas and groceries keeps going up. They’re done with growing unemployment, which for Black workers has gone twice as high since he took office.”
Harris also voiced support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms and the seven other statewide office candidates before posing for photos with them. She praised the former Atlanta mayor for her service as Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden and Director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement.
“I am a witness to her grace and her greatness as a leader,” Harris said of Bottoms. “Georgia has Keisha Lance Bottoms who will be the first Black woman governor in the history of the United States.”
Harris also voiced support for incumbent U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams and Lucy McBath as well as Jasmine Clark. Running against Republican Jonathan Chavez, Clark wants to serve as the next U.S. House Rep. for Congressional District 13 following the passing of David Scott earlier this year.
Whoever wins will replace U.S. Rep. Everton Blair, who won a special election in August to fill the remainder of Scott’s term ending in January.
The Fulton Forward gala was Harris’ latest Georgia stop after visiting HBCU students at the AUC on Thursday.
She reminded folks Friday the role HBCU grads like Martin Luther King and John Lewis have played in the civil rights movement.
“It was young people from Morehouse and Spelman and Clark who sat down at lunch counters and made others stand up,” Harris said.
Along with Bottoms, there are seven Black women running for statewide office positions in this year’s midterm election cycle.
Former Fulton County Judge Penny Brown Reynolds is running for secretary of state against Republican state Rep. Tim Fleming. State House Rep. Tanya Miller is vying to become Georgia’s next attorney general against GOP state Sen. Brian Strickland.
Assistant Principal Lydia Powell is challenging incumbent state Superintendent Richard Woods. Communications consultant Shelia Edwards is running against principal engineer Josh Tolbert for a seat on the state’s Public Service Commission.
Former Atlanta City Councilmember Keisha Sean Waites is challenging incumbent Insurance Commissioner John King. Farming nonprofit leader Katherine Juhan-Arnold is battling incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler J. Harper. Nikki Porcher is running for Labor Commissioner against incumbent Bárbara Rivera Holmes. And farming nonprofit leader Katherine Juhan-Arnold is competing against incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler J. Harper.
Black women have long been the Democratic party’s most loyal block of voters, but haven’t always felt supported by party leadership to run for statewide office.
Stacey Abrams challenged the status quo in 2018 when she became the first Black woman to secure a major party’s nomination to run for governor. But she came up short twice, raising questions among some as to whether women of color can win statewide elections in Georgia.
Harris made it clear that they can, noting the successes Democrats like Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson had in last year’s PSC elections.
“Everyone here, you have proven that when Democrats invest in the South, we can win in the South,” she said. “You win races that the pundits were saying was impossible.”
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