The Grio Highlights Historic Victories of Black Governors-Elect and DGA’s Role

The Grio Highlights Historic Victories of Black Governors-Elect and DGA’s Role

New reporting from The Grio spotlights the historic wins of Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, David Crowley in Wisconsin, and Aaron Ford in Nevada, noting “The DGA and its allied entities spent over $70 million on the Bottoms, Crowley, and Ford campaigns.”

DGA Chair Gov. Beshear told The Grio: “The DGA was either the single largest funder directly to the campaign—that’s Georgia—or to the independent expenditures for every single campaign…We wanted to make history. We wanted people to know that the Democratic Governors Association believes in diversity, backs these candidates, and so do I personally.”

Additionally, Gov. Wes Moore, who won re-election and is the country’s only current Black governor, made it a “personal mission” to help win these races and spent significant time “aggressively campaigning” for Bottoms, Crowley and Ford.

Read more about history-making Black governors below:

The Grio: Andy Beshear says newly elected Black governors are Democrats’ secret weapon for 2028 

• Last week’s midterm elections resulted in a record number of Black candidates being elected governor. However, the wins of Governors-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia, David Crowley of Wisconsin, and Aaron Ford of Nevada also set up Democrats for the 2028 presidential election, notes Gov. Andy Beshear…

• “The DGA and these candidates together created the best map for ’28 that Democrats have had in decades,” Beshear told theGrio during a recent post-midterm election interview.

• As chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Governor Beshear led the organization’s national support for this cycle’s slate of Black Democratic gubernatorial nominees. The DGA and its allied entities spent over $70 million on the Bottoms, Crowley, and Ford campaigns.

• “The DGA was either the single largest funder directly to the campaign—that’s Georgia—or to the independent expenditures for every single campaign,” said Beshear. He added, “We wanted to make history. We wanted people to know that the Democratic Governors Association believes in diversity, backs these candidates, and so do I personally.”

• The investments have paid off, Beshear relished: “Now we have a Democratic governor in every single swing state.”

• Beshear said he was particularly excited about the election of Keisha Lance Bottoms, whom he praised as an “impressive” candidate and “the only person I know in America that can create presidential level turnout in a non-presidential year.” He said of the first Black woman governor in U.S. history: “She is very skilled, and the DGA was a huge part of her campaign.”

• The Kentucky governor said of Ford, a close friend whom he worked alongside with as fellow attorneys general, “I told people from the very beginning in the DGA that we could win this. And there was skepticism because he was going up against an incumbent, but I knew that he could do it.”

###