Governor of Georgia

Statewide — all of Georgia

General election · Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Sources re-checked October 19, 2026 · How we research

• Open seat: Republican Gov. Brian Kemp cannot seek a third consecutive term.[1][2]
• Republican primary: businessman Rick Jackson and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones led the May 19 first round but neither reached 50 percent, forcing a June 16 runoff, which Jackson won. President Trump had endorsed Jones before the runoff and endorsed Jackson in July.[1][2]
• Democratic primary: former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the May nomination without a runoff against six other candidates.[1][3]
• Libertarian Chase Oliver, the 2024 Libertarian presidential nominee, was announced by the Libertarian Party of Georgia on March 6 as having filed paperwork to run for governor. The party had lost automatic ballot access and, per WABE (July 10), turned in only a few hundred of the more than 70,000 petition signatures needed (the party's own March release put the requirement at over 80,000), and WABE reported that Libertarians will not appear on the November ballot, though write-in candidacies remain possible. Wikipedia lists Oliver as withdrawn. WSB-TV's October 14 statewide list nevertheless names Oliver as the Libertarian candidate. These sources conflict, and no official ballot was available to settle it. This guide lists the two nominees.[4][5][6][1]