AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The blue wave landed hard in Georgia. After Tuesday's elections, Democrats will fill both U.S. Senate seats in Georgia, many statewide offices, a majority in one house of the state legislature and the governor's mansion. Former Atlanta mayor and Biden administration adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms will become the first Democratic governor in Georgia in over two decades. She will also be the state's first Black governor and its first female governor, and she will be the first Black woman to lead any state in history. Did I miss anything else? Governor-elect Bottoms joins us now. Welcome, and congratulations to you.
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS: Oh, well, thank you so much. It is great to join you.
CHANG: Oh, it's great to have you. OK, so across the country, it was very clear that Democrats made this an affordability and anti-Trump election. Affordability was, of course, one of your key messages in your campaign. So let me just ask. Day 1, January 2027, tell us what can your administration do to improve the cost of living?
BOTTOMS: Well, the cost-of-living conversation was one I didn't need a polling source to tell me was important to voters across Georgia. It has been consistent throughout the 530-plus days of this campaign. And the budget comes from the governor's office. So President Biden often says, show me your budget, I'll show you your priorities. We want to make sure that first budget includes things like a backstop for local governments that want to eliminate or temporarily suspend their grocery taxes. We want to make sure that our priorities related around housing are included and healthcare, especially the expansion of Medicaid. And then fully funding education and properly funding education remains a priority.
CHANG: OK, I'm going to pick up on a couple of those items in a second. But in countering any of President Trump's specific policies, what do you expect you can do, at least within Georgia?
BOTTOMS: Well, there are several things that we can do, specifically around education and public health. We know that hundreds of millions of dollars have been cut not just from Georgia but across the country. So we've got to make sure that we are filling in these budget gaps. I met a woman on the campaign trail, for example, who had a mobile mammogram clinic that was funded through pass-through funding from the CDC, servicing rural communities across Georgia. Ten thousand women. Her funding was completely cut. So those are the type things that we want to make sure that where we are able, we're able to fill in the gap in that first budget that will come from the governor's office.
CHANG: But can I ask, because Republicans are still projected to have a slim majority in the state Senate, so even though Democrats will be in the majority in the state House, I mean, you will need legislative approval for, you know, a lot of items, including any Medicaid expansion. So do you feel that you can work with Republicans to get some of these items that you're ticking off approved?
BOTTOMS: I do believe that I can because I've done it before. I had to do it when I was mayor of Atlanta. You don't get to serve effectively without working across the aisle. And the reality is that, for example, with our healthcare cuts, nine rural hospitals have closed. So many of our red counties have been hit harder than even our urban centers on issues related to healthcare.
CHANG: OK. What about when it comes to any potential lame-duck legislature attempts at reducing the power of the governor's office before you take office? I know the outgoing Republican governor, Brian Kemp, says he opposes any such attempts. Do you worry that that might still be a concern?
BOTTOMS: You know, I can say Governor Kemp and I have had our fair share of disagreements, but I've never found him to be untruthful in our conversation. So when I spoke with him yesterday, he said he's not interested in touching the maps, not interested in stripping powers from the governor. So I appreciated that stance, and I take him at his word.
CHANG: You know, a lot of people are saying that a lot of the Democratic victories we saw in this election are more about a repudiation of Trump and a repudiation of Republicans, less an affirmative endorsement of the Democratic Party. So let me ask you, like, what do you think it will take - looking long-term now - what will it take for Democrats to make the case to Georgians that they deserve to remain in power?
BOTTOMS: Well, you know, the voters spoke for themselves. So whatever their reasons, we now have the reins. We've got to deliver on those things that we can and be upfront with the people on those things that we won't be able to get done immediately. But again, reminding people it's a long-term game.
CHANG: I guess what I'm asking is a finer point. Where is the balance? The balance between acknowledging that a lot of the election outcome we saw, like, in a state such as Georgia was a repudiation of the Republican platform, a repudiation of President Trump, while also acknowledging you have to work with Republicans at some point because there's divided government, at least at the state level, inside Georgia. Where's the balance? I mean, working with them but also answering the repudiation that voters voiced on Tuesday.
BOTTOMS: Well, I respectfully disagree with that because that diminishes the work that was done on behalf of candidates up and down the ballot in our state and the stances that we took on certain policy areas. Sure, Trump was on the ballot, but also, I have concrete plans to address the cost of living. I have concrete plans regarding education, as have other candidates on the ballot. So my point being, we listened throughout the course of our campaign to what people said they wanted addressed. If Republicans are smart and if they've taken lessons from Tuesday, is that they also need to work with us, that this needs to be a two-way street for us to deliver to our constituencies.
CHANG: I do want to touch on your victory speech before I let you go because it was moving to hear you talk about your great-great-grandparents who were enslaved in Georgia. Can you share with me, like, what it means to you - I know this question has been posed to you so many times, but if you can reflect on it in this moment - what it means to you to become the state's first Black governor, given your family history in that state?
BOTTOMS: You know, throughout this campaign, when people have talked about the historic nature, I've repeatedly said it's so much more personal for me because of my family's history in this state, being able to trace my family to people who were once enslaved in this state. And on the eve of the election, for the first time, I went to a cemetery in Crawfordville, Georgia, and we found the grave of my great-great-grandmother, who was born in 1845, 20 years before emancipation.
And I said this election, I stand on shoulders made of steel. Each generation has just moved the needle a little further to allow me to become the governor. It has exceeded every dream that I ever thought possible, but it also speaks to the possibilities when you give children a foundation which they can build upon and reach for the stars.
CHANG: Keisha Lance Bottoms, governor-elect in Georgia, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, and congratulations again.
BOTTOMS: Thank you. I appreciate you.
(SOUNDBITE OF STUDIOKE'S "MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA (ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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