Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stood alongside Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms at a campaign forum in Marietta on Friday, using the joint appearance to press the case for Medicaid expansion and universal pre-K just as Georgia's marquee statewide race heads into its final stretch. The two governors used the shared stage to link Georgia's healthcare and education debates to broader Democratic priorities being pushed in dozens of governor's races nationwide this year.
Bottoms, who is running to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, faces Republican nominee Rick Jackson, a healthcare executive, in the November 3 general election, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Georgia has not elected a Democratic governor since 1998, per Ballotpedia, making the contest one of the most closely watched of the 2026 cycle. Whitmer's presence in Marietta was not incidental — she serves as Vice Chair of the Democratic Governors Association, a post she was elected to in December 2025 to help Democratic candidates in 36 governor's races this year, according to the Democratic Governors Association.
Healthcare Divide Takes Center Stage
At the forum, Whitmer and Bottoms addressed Medicaid expansion, a defining issue in a state that remains one of 10 nationwide that has not fully expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Bottoms has proposed scrapping Kemp's Pathways to Coverage program in favor of full ACA expansion, which she argues could cover up to 300,000 uninsured Georgians, per Ballotpedia. The current Pathways program requires participants to document 80 monthly hours of work or other qualifying activities to keep coverage.
Bottoms has pointed to a September 2025 Government Accountability Office report showing the Pathways program spent $54.2 million on administrative costs compared to just $26.1 million on direct healthcare services, while enrolling fewer than 17,000 active participants through mid-2026, according to reporting by The Current. She has argued the work-requirement system has produced heavy overhead while covering only a small fraction of eligible residents, framing it as a driver of rural hospital closures during her earlier statewide tour, a trip Hoodline covered in July.
Pre-K Pitch Draws on Both States' Records
Beyond healthcare, Whitmer and Bottoms also addressed universal pre-K during the Marietta event. Georgia has a claim to being a national pioneer on the issue, having established the country's first state-funded universal prekindergarten program for four-year-olds back in 1995, funded through the Georgia Lottery for Education and administered by Bright from the Start, per the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. That lottery-funded program now serves more than 70,000 four-year-olds annually across public and private settings.
Whitmer brought her own record to the discussion, having expanded Pre-K for All in Michigan through state education budgets she signed in July 2024 and again in July 2026, broadening the state's Great Start Readiness Program to offer free preschool to four-year-olds statewide, according to the State of Michigan. Her recent education budget included dedicated funding to expand early childhood learning in Michigan, giving the Georgia event a direct comparison point between the two states' approaches to early education.
A Suburban Battleground With High Stakes
The choice of Marietta as a venue was itself a signal. Cobb County was once a reliably conservative stronghold under figures like Newt Gingrich, but it has shifted into a competitive suburban battleground since the 2016 presidential election, according to reporting by The Washington Post. Holding a high-profile campaign event there underscores how central the Atlanta suburbs have become to Democrats' hopes of flipping the governor's mansion.
Bottoms secured the Democratic nomination on May 19 with 56.2% of the vote, or 608,264 votes, in a primary bolstered by an endorsement from former President Joe Biden, under whom she served as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, according to The 19th News. The former Atlanta mayor has also picked up backing from Eric Holder, a story Hoodline reported in early August. If elected in November, Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in United States history, per The 19th News.
Money Still Favors Jackson
Despite the high-profile campaign swing, Bottoms continues to face a steep financial disadvantage. Campaign finance disclosures filed this month show Jackson outraised Bottoms roughly 2-to-1 during the May-through-July reporting period, collecting $6.1 million compared with Bottoms' $3.1 million, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Jackson, a healthcare executive, has pledged substantial personal wealth to his own campaign, a gap Hoodline detailed in its recent coverage of the candidates' fundraising filings and their earlier shared appearance in Athens.
With the general election just under three months away, the Marietta forum offered a preview of how both the healthcare and education fights are likely to shape the closing months of the race. Whitmer's appearance also fits a broader pattern of Democratic Governors Association leaders — including DGA Chair Andy Beshear of Kentucky — fanning out to help candidates in competitive states this cycle, according to the Democratic Governors Association.
