Winning Black Candidates Make History in Governors’ Races

Five Black governors will serve at the same time for the first time in America’s history. Hours after Black governors-elect on opposite sides of the political spectrum became firsts, two more wins followed, and an incumbent won reelection. 

Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has become the first Black woman elected as governor in American history. Republican Byron Donalds has become Florida’s first Black governor in his state. Democrats David Crowley in Wisconsin and Aaron Ford became the first Black governors of their states. And Wes Moore easily won a second term as Maryland’s governor. 

Before Tuesday night, only three Black candidates had been elected governor – and they’d all been Black men and Democrats. 

This year’s gubernatorial pool was politically diverse, and all the candidates wanted the focus to be on their policies, not their identities, as they made history.

Incumbent Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who was reelected Tuesday, joined the ranks of Black governors in 2022, following in the footsteps of Virginia’s Doug Wilder and Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick. Wilder was elected Virginia’s first Black governor in 1989. Patrick was elected in Massachusetts in 2006 and reelected in 2010.  

Earlier this year in response to the redistricting battles across the country, Moore told Capital B, “It’s the greatest form of political redlining we’ve seen in generations, where we are intentionally trying to disenfranchise Black voters and trying to minimize Black leadership in a way that frankly we have not seen since Reconstruction.”

After Democrats made history in several states and retook Congress, from the Mid-Atlantic to the South to even the West Coast, five of the eight Black gubernatorial candidates will head to the governor’s mansion in 2027.

Republicans

Byron Donalds in Florida

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds was elected Tuesday to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis in the general election on Nov. 3. “We have won a massive victory,” Donalds told supporters at an election night event after the Associated Press called the race in the GOP primary in August.

Donalds defeated David Jolly, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat. The Brooklyn, New York, native has represented Florida’s 19th District in the state’s southwest since 2021. 

Earlier this month Florida A&M students grilled the gubernatorial candidate during a townhall. He’s referenced his time at the HBCU from 1996 to 1999, even though he didn’t graduate from the school. Donald’s campaign focused on the economy, healthcare, law and order, education and affordability.

Lisa Demuth in Minnesota

Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar defeated Republican state House Speaker Demuth in a race shaped by a widespread fraud scandal in state government, according to the Associated Press. Demuth was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2018. It was the first all-woman major-party race for governor in Minnesota history. In September, she joined a growing number of Republican candidates calling an end to the war in Iran. 

Demuth’s campaign has focused on education, affordability, public safety, and fraud prevention. Despite frequent portrayals of Minnesota as unique or among the worst in the nation at preventing fraud from government programs in recent years, data shows otherwise. Polling shows Klobuchar with a nearly 10-point lead.

John James in Michigan

The Republican congressman has called himself the “only candidate for governor who is a true outsider to Lansing,” the state’s capital city. Democrat Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, has a six-point lead among likely voters against James. Benson’s lead widens to 11 points among registered voters, according to a recent Marist poll. 

James became the first Black Republican elected to Congress when he was elected to represent the state’s 10th Congressional District in 2022. He voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and anti-abortion legislation. He’s also co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that supports the Great Lakes and nuclear prevention. James continues to face ethical complaints from constituents who allege he misused taxpayer money to fund his gubernatorial campaign. In 2026 the claims were dismissed, finding “no reasonable justification.”

Democrats

Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia

The former Atlanta mayor defeated wealthy Republican businessman Rick Jackson Tuesday night on Nov. 3. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll had Jackson and Bottoms in a statistical dead heat. Bottoms was the second Black woman in state history to run for governor on a major party ticket. Stacey Abrams became the first in 2018 when she launched the first of her two historic bids. 

In recent ads from Jackson’s campaign, Bottoms has been accused of abandoning Atlanta, but she served her full term and chose not to seek a second term to focus on her family. She’s campaigned on education, housing, healthcare, and helping farmers and small businesses.

David Crowley in Wisconsin

Democrat Crowley defeated Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, according to the AP. Crowley’s campaign focused on “lowering costs for working families” and bringing more jobs to Wisconsin. The county executive’s win over Trump loyalist Tiffany marks the first time in Wisconsin’s 178-year history that Democrats will hold the governor’s office for more than eight consecutive years. 

“Because of you all, a boy facing eviction will now live in the governor’s mansion,” Crowley told cheering supporters in Milwaukee, just a couple of miles from where he grew up.

Aaron Ford in Nevada

The Democratic attorney general defeated Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo in the key battleground state. Nevada will play a critical role in the next presidential election.

Ford has served as the state’s top prosecutor since 2019. Throughout his campaign, he described growing up in poverty and going to school hungry. He explained how he became a math teacher before earning his law degree, and highlighted efforts to fight the Trump administration.

“This campaign didn’t happen by accident,” Ford said at a watch party on Tuesday, the AP reported. “It happened because of faith, because of family, because of hard work, and because the people of Nevada decided that our best days are still ahead of us.”

Jermaine Johnson in South Carolina

Johnson, a representative in the South Carolina House, was defeated by Republican Alan Wilson, who is the state’s attorney general.

His campaign has focused on his work advocating for better infrastructure, broadband access, and medical access for rural communities, among other issues. An Oct. 19-26 New York Times/Siena University poll put Wilson at 51% and Johnson at 44%.

Wes Moore in Maryland

The incumbent won a second term. Most polls showed him with a considerable lead over Republican Dan Cox. Cox had been critical of Moore’s support for changing the state constitution, which currently requires congressional districts to be contiguous and follow natural boundaries. “This is outrageous. This is not democracy. Marylanders should not surrender their protection of community boundaries under our own state constitution,” Cox said. 

In an interview with Capital B about redistricting earlier this year, Moore said, “I will never move on from fighting for our democracy, and it is something that I know is going to be a long-term fight.”

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