Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Georgia governor race

Let's now bring in Fox 5's Deidre Dukes, who now joins us live from outside the state capital. And Deidre, there's obviously a lot of reaction pulling in. What can you tell us about how she's responding? A lot of excitement, as you can imagine, among Democrats here in the state of Georgia after that historic win by Democratic Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms. And also, like you said, up and down the ticket, Democrats really winning big last night. As for the governor's race, as Keisha Lance Bottoms noted during her acceptance speech last night, this really was a hard-fought battle. We really saw both candidates The opponent, Republican opponent, Rick Jackson. And the gubernatorial, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms really going for several months, going hard during that general election, both with their campaigns and even in the final week, crisscrossing the state, visiting several cities on the last week of the election as they both worked to drive their voters to the polls. Democrats going into election day told me that they were very excited about the chances that they had to win this race, even yesterday as they continued to work. Keisha Lance Bottoms, even yesterday, making a couple of appearances in Smyrna, not only to thank supporters, but also once again to try to encourage those who had not cast their ballots yet to do so. And in talking to members of her campaign yesterday, they did They did tell me that they felt that they had stacked enough votes, gotten enough people People out voting early, her supporters on the front end, that if they had another strong turnout on election day, they felt that they would, in fact, win this race, which, in fact, we saw that they did and that the margin was not nearly as close as polls have shown that the race was in months ever since those two were set to be the. To be the candidates in the general election we did hear from not only Keisha Lance Bottoms last night but also from Jackson. They both of course delivered speeches after those votes came in and after Jackson did call Bottoms in order to concede the race and here's what they had to say. The campaign is about making sure that every Georgian, no matter their background, their zip code, has a fair chance at building a better future. And that is what I will fight for every day as your governor. Thank you for showing me every day all that is good about Georgia. I saw Georgia's goodness in the over 100 communities I visited and in the faces of thousands of Georgians like you, young lady. I'm on the campaign trail. And so we did learn this afternoon that the governor-elect will be making an appearance here in the metro Atlanta area to thank supporters and others, volunteers for their hard work during the months of the campaign. We also expect that the reporters will have an opportunity to talk to her about next steps during this transition, but really a big night, a historic, historic occasion for Democrats and the country, Tyler. I mean, we obviously were seeing some polling data come in, but a lot of these races were decided relatively quickly in comparison to what it could have been. But, Deidre, while I have you, let me ask you this question. So, obviously, we were hearing from Governor Brian Kemp earlier today where he rejected a call for a special session to limit the governor's powers. Thank you. I mean, this is kind of... It seems unprecedented that there was that request, that there was some requests for this to even happen. Talk of that and also redistricting. We reporters heard some months ago that there would be most likely a special session after the election for possible redistricting of maps. And so for the governor to come out today and say, in fact, he would not call a special session. Yes, that absolutely was a big news, significant announcement from him. He did say the people have spoken. He would honor the Fair elections, secure elections here in the state of Georgia, that that was the outcome had been decided last night during the elections and the results that we saw and said that he would not be calling a special election, had no reason to do so in regards to redistricting or any of some of the other things that some had called for in anticipation of what was expected to be possibly a very good night for Democrats. Deidre Dukes, live in downtown Atlanta. You cover politics for us. I appreciate the update on the governor's race, and I know you'll be at that news conference bringing us the very latest this afternoon. Deidre, thanks so much.