Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms declared Sunday that Georgia, a state dominated by Republicans for decades, is "a blue state."
"I think it's safe to safe that we are a blue state," Bottoms said on ABC's "This Week."
"I said throughout the course of this campaign that we would show people across Georgia and across the nation that sending Sens. [Jon] Ossoff and [Raphael] Warnock to the Senate and flipping Georgia blue in '20 was not a fluke, that we were on a path towards truly showing everyone that we were solidly blue, and we showed that in a really big way on Tuesday," Bottoms further said.
With her win, Bottoms is making history in multiple ways. Not only is she set to become the Peach State's first female governor and first Black governor, she is also the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. The last time Georgia elected a Democratic governor was Gov. Roy Barnes in 1999.
Along with Bottoms, Democrats are projected to win every statewide office on the ballot this year in Georgia, including the positions of lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state. They are also set to control the state house for the first time in 22 years.
"This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl asked Bottoms how Democrats will keep those voters on their team in future elections.
"I was very intentional in visiting areas that Trump carried. We kicked off the general election up in the county that Trump had carried by close to 77 percent, and we ended it in another county that Trump won. And I wanted to be clear that I was there to listen, I was there to hear the concerns of people across the state. That I wasn't just campaigning to Democrats, but also those independents and Republicans across the state," Bottoms said.
"At the end of the day, the issues that we're facing transcend party lines," Bottoms added.
Bottoms’ governorship follows Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was term limited and experienced various clashes with the Trump administration during his tenure. Bottoms said that she is prepared to work with the administration but also will “stand up and push back and fight back when necessary.”
“I'm going to talk to leaders across this country, Democrats and Republicans, to find out how they've been able to navigate this White House,” said Bottoms. “I was [Atlanta's] mayor under the first Trump administration. There were a couple of reasonable voices that we were able to communicate with.”
Bottoms added that President Trump’s Friday announcement that Stephen Miller will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff complicates communicating with the administration: “I don't know that those voices can be found, especially with the transition of the chief of staff.”
Bottoms also reflected on the nature of her historic win. She recounted visiting the grave of her enslaved great great grandmother, Betsy Peake, in Crawfordville, Georgia, on the day of her victory.
“It was one of the most moving experiences I've had in my life,” Bottoms said. “And we went to the cemetery where we thought some of my family members were buried. And there are a number of unmarked graves. And we stumbled across a tombstone that had our family name. And I literally fell to the ground when I saw that it was Betsy Peake.”
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