A Historic First: Five Black Candidates Win U.S. Gubernatorial Races

In an unprecedented political milestone, five Black candidates won gubernatorial elections this Tuesday, marking the first time multiple Black governors will serve simultaneously in U.S. history.

The winners are four Democrats and one Republican: Wes Moore, who was reelected in Maryland; Byron Donalds in Florida; Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia; David Crowley in Wisconsin; and Aaron Ford in Nevada.

Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, will be the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. governor. She is also the first woman and the first Black person elected governor of Georgia. She defeated Rick Jackson, a Republican health-care executive who put more than US$100 million of his own money into his campaign.

Only three Black Americans had previously been elected governor: Doug Wilder of Virginia in 1989, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts in 2006 and Moore in 2022. None served concurrently.

Donalds, who is a congressman, told NBC News last month that the milestone was “very special.” He said his win says more about Florida than about him.