Georgia Democrats hope unity ticket can propel them to victory in November

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

June 2, 2026

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms are two names you might be hearing together quite a bit in the coming months.

Both Democrats will be at the top of your ballot in November – Ossoff is seeking a second six-year-term in the U.S. Senate and Bottoms is attempting to become the first Black woman governor in the United States. And they’re hoping running a tandem campaign will help them achieve victory.

It will be two more weeks before Republicans decide who their candidates for those offices will be. Both races are set for a June 16 runoff after no winner emerged in the May primary elections. Congressman Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley are competing to run against Ossoff, and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is facing off against businessman Rick Jackson to run for governor.

The Democratic duo held their first public event together Sunday when Bottoms joined Ossoff on stage at his rally in Atlanta, signaling that the pair would be a united front this year. Joining their campaigns together makes strategic sense, said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie.

“Pooling resources makes a whole lot of sense because there are certain synergies that can be achieved by choosing to run together,” she said. “If it turns out that one of these candidates has a stronger operation in one part of the state where another candidate just doesn’t have the same infrastructure, pooling those resources, pooling that staff, actually makes a whole lot of sense for them.”

“Also, it is showing certain types of optics,” she added. “In particular, it doesn’t hurt Jon Ossoff to look to be supportive of an African-American female candidate. And in terms of kind of like tying the votes to each other, it is just a reminder and a cue to voters to remember that what Democrats are asking for is for them to vote Democratic all the way down the ticket.”

Evocative of 2020?

Outside the rally, Democratic voters expressed excitement about Ossoff and Bottoms working as a team.

Among the crowd was Jacob Chambers of Atlanta, an engineer and former candidate for city council.

Chambers said he supported former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond in the Democratic primary, but he has no qualms with backing Bottoms in the general election. Bottoms won last month’s primary outright with 56% of the vote.

“I’m excited about the fact that people are familiar with her,” he said. “I mean, that speech she gave during 2020 I think really showed people that she was very serious, that she was capable, and I think that at the end of the day, a lot of people are going to be voting based on economic issues, and I think we’ve seen that Republicans, they just can’t handle this, they don’t have the right combination of policies and interests.”

Rod Mullice, a real estate developer who lives in College Park, said seeing Bottoms and Ossoff share a stage gave him flashbacks to a time when Democrats won a pair of major victories in Georgia.

“It reminds me of 2020 when Ossoff and Warnock campaigned together,” he said. “It felt like the state was united and we were fighting for a common purpose, to move the state forward.”

Mullice said he didn’t feel the same excitement in 2022 when U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led the Democratic ticket but largely campaigned separately.

Stone Mountain Democratic state Rep. Billy Mitchell said he hopes unity will be the name of the game for Georgia Democrats in 2026.

“Everyone on the Democratic ticket is going to be running in partnership with Jon Ossoff, who will be at the top of this ticket,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a bad strategy to emphasize that in as much as I think they appeal to two different segments of the voting populace.”

Mitchell said Bottoms can help Ossoff with Black women voters, a major demographic in Georgia who played a big role in last month’s Democratic primary. And Mitchell said Ossoff can introduce Bottoms to voters outside the Atlanta area who may be less familiar with her.

“When you compare that enthusiasm that Keisha Lance Bottoms is going to bring, particularly with Black women, the experience that Jon Ossoff has brought, the constituency service representing everyone, I think it’s a good pairing,” Mitchell said.

Not so fast

Pumping up a crowd in Atlanta is one thing, but winning an election is another, and pulling that off will be an uphill battle for Georgia Democrats, said Gillespie, the Emory professor.

“The fundamentals of the race are still going to privilege whoever the Republican nominees are,” she said. “The Democrats are looking for any place where they can mitigate their disadvantage, so running a ticket campaign is one way to mitigate their underdog status and to try to improve their odds of winning. Republicans do not necessarily have the same need to run together, even though I think it would make sense for them.”

Speaking at a rally for Jackson Monday, many conservative voters pooh-poohed the idea that Democrats would benefit from Republicans continuing to zap each other in the primary. Jackson campaigned with Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott instead of joining Jones on the debate stage Monday.

“Sometimes it gets a little rough, but ultimately these primaries are great because it makes everyone better,” said state Rep. Brent Cox, a Dawsonville Republican and an early Jackson backer. “It has caused Rick Jackson, and frankly it’s caused Burt Jones, to become even better candidates than they were before.”

“Ultimately, I know that whoever’s elected  – and if it’s Rick Jackson, which obviously I believe it should be – will definitely be reaching out to try to secure all the people that were on the other side of this primary runoff, because come November, we must be unified as a Republican party and we must win.  Otherwise we lose to the Democrats,” he added.

Mike Cason, a former Dallas city councilman who attended Jackson’s event, said he would need to be persuaded to back Jones if he becomes the party nominee.

“I don’t know Burt Jones that well, but I’ve just seen the commercials,” he said. “I know that Rick stood on his own.”

Brian Robinson, a Republican strategist who is currently working as a Jackson spokesman, said the nominees will have plenty of time to bring anyone with hurt feelings back to the fold.

“The general election is not July 1,. It’s in November,” Robinson said. “So the primary is a part of the system, and we have a lot of time to unify, and look, we’re always going to have differences, but what’s going to unify us is the rejection of Keisha Lance Bottoms’ record as Atlanta mayor.”

Georgia Recorder intern Ellie Fivas contributed to this story

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