佐治亚州莫罗讯——前总统巴拉克·奥巴马周三晚在亚特兰大为民主党候选人举行造势集会，其中包括参议员乔恩·奥索夫，他在许多民调中大幅领先共和党人迈克·柯林斯。但奥巴马将大部分讲话时间用于赞扬同台的另一位竞选人：亚特兰大前市长基莎·兰斯·博托姆斯，她在佐治亚州州长竞选中与共和党亿万富翁里克·杰克逊势均力敌。
MORROW, Ga.—Former President Barack Obama rallied in Atlanta Wednesday night for Democratic candidates, including Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up big in many polls over Republican Mike Collins. But Obama devoted much of his remarks to praising another contender on the stage: former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is neck and neck with Republican Billionaire Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor’s race.“I’ve seen how much she cares about other people, how deeply she understands the pain people are feeling now,” Obama told a crowd of thousands, who interrupted him to chant “Keisha!”
“我看到了她多么关心他人，多么深刻地理解人们现在感受到的痛苦，”奥巴马对数千名听众说，人群打断他高呼“Keisha！”。“我知道她会每天为你们而战。”
“I know she will fight for you every day.”As Election Day nears, the battle for Georgia’s top job has become one of America’s fiercest state showdowns.
随着选举日临近，佐治亚州最高行政长官之争已成为全美最激烈的州级对决之一。据《库克政治报告》统计，在36场州长竞选中，仅有四场被列为“势均力敌”，此次竞选便是其中之一。博托姆斯角逐成为美国历史上首位当选州长的黑人女性，并夺回共和党把持23年的州长宝座。“这仍是谁的赛局都说不准，”埃默里大学政治学教授安德拉·吉莱斯皮说。每位候选人都能拿出近期民调显示自己微弱领先。
It is one of only four tossups among 36 gubernatorial races, according to the Cook Political Report. Bottoms is vying to become the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history and reclaim an office Republicans have held for 23 years. “It’s still anybody’s race,” said Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political science professor. Each candidate can point to a recent poll showing them narrowly ahead. Overall early-voting turnout has set records for a Georgia midterm so far, and top party surrogates are descending on the state.
佐治亚州中期选举早期投票总体投票率迄今已刷新纪录，两党重量级代言人纷至沓来。特朗普总统近日与杰克逊同台造势，称这位商人是“伟大的爱国者”，将推动佐治亚州经济发展。
President Trump has campaigned with Jackson in recent days, calling the businessman a “great patriot” who would boost Georgia’s economy. Republicans have dominated here for decades, but Democrats have made advances in the South in recent years, aided, many argue, by demographic shifts: growing minority populations and an influx of transplants.
共和党在该州占据主导地位已有数十年，但近年来民主党在南方取得进展，许多人认为这得益于人口结构变化：少数族裔人口增长和外迁人口涌入。总统大选在佐治亚州呈现摇摆：特朗普在2016年和2024年赢得该州，民主党人乔·拜登在2020年获胜。竞选州长时，斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯两度败给共和党人布莱恩·坎普，后者现已届满任期限制。
Presidential elections have swung in Georgia: Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2024, and Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Running for governor, Stacey Abrams lost twice to Republican Brian Kemp, who is now term-limited. Democrats have dispatched Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, actor Kerry Washington and Obama.
民主党派出马里兰州州长韦斯·摩尔、演员克里·华盛顿和奥巴马助选。伊利诺伊州州长……JB Pritzker 向博特姆斯的竞选团队捐赠 100 万美元，此举早前已被《Politico》报道。两位候选人都将攻击重点放在对方希望回避的话题上。72 岁的政治新人杰克逊已向自己的竞选活动投入数千万美元，其中包括指责博特姆斯（56 岁）在担任市长期间，因乔治·弗洛伊德遇害后发生的犯罪和骚乱的攻击性广告；博特姆斯只担任了一届市长，因为她决定不寻求连任。
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is sending Bottoms’ campaign $1 million, a move earlier reported by Politico. Both candidates are focusing on topics the other wants to avoid. Jackson, a 72-year-old political newcomer, has poured tens of millions into his own campaign, including on attack ads blaming Bottoms, 56, for crime and unrest after George Floyd’s murder, during her mayoral tenure, which lasted one term after she decided not to seek re-election. A recent Jackson flier declared, “As Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms LET ATLANTA BURN.”
杰克逊最近的一份传单宣称：“作为市长，Keisha Lance Bottoms 任由亚特大陷入火海。”博特姆斯指责杰克逊与特朗普关系亲密，包括在初选中承诺要做特朗普“最喜爱的州长”，却在总统支持率下滑后与其划清界限。在 10 月初的唯一一场辩论中，杰克逊未提特朗普。她还批评了杰克逊的法律纠纷和商业利益。在佐治亚州多尔顿举行的特朗普集会上，特朗普赞扬了杰克逊，而杰克逊则称赞了肯普；肯普依然广受欢迎，并因拒绝响应特朗普推翻佐治亚州 2020 年大选结果的要求而闻名。
Bottoms has accused Jackson of cozying up to Trump, including pledging to be his “favorite governor” in the primary, only to distance himself as the president’s ratings fell. In their only debate, in early October, Jackson didn’t mention Trump. She has also criticized Jackson’s legal fights and business interests. At a Trump rally in Dalton, Ga., Trump lauded Jackson, while Jackson praised Kemp, who remains popular and who famously defied Trump’s calls to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Early-voting data so far shows moderate turnout in many traditionally Republican areas and increased turnout in Democratic-leaning counties.
目前的提前投票数据显示，许多传统共和党地区的投票率适中，而倾向民主党的县投票率有所上升。杰克逊的竞选团队近日加大了拉票力度。他最初表示将缺席 10 月 24 日在佐治亚州佩里举行的特朗普集会，随后改变主意并在台上赞扬了总统。在竞选途中，两位州长候选人都敞开心扉，谈论个人和职业生涯中的挑战。
Jackson’s campaign has ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts in recent days. He initially said he would skip an Oct. 24 Trump rally in Perry, Ga., then reversed course and praised the president onstage. On the trail, both gubernatorial candidates have opened up about personal and professional challenges. Bottoms grew up comfortably in Atlanta, but her father, Major Lance, a hit soul singer who performed on “American Bandstand,” fell into addiction.
博特姆斯在亚特大优渥的环境中长大，但她的父亲、热门灵魂歌手梅杰·兰斯曾登上《American Bandstand》舞台，后来却陷入毒瘾。8 岁那年，她目睹警察因可卡因指控将父亲戴上手铐带走。“周六我最喜欢做的事过去是去上芭蕾课，但如果有足够的汽油钱，大多数周末都被去监狱看爸爸取代了，”博特姆斯在保守的佐治亚州西北部小镇林戈尔德对选民说道。危机贯穿了她的市长任期。
At age 8, she watched police lead him away in handcuffs on cocaine charges.“On Saturdays, my favorite thing to do used to be to go to ballet lessons, and that was replaced most weekends, if we had enough gas money, by going to see my dad in prison,” Bottoms told voters in Ringgold, a town in conservative northwest Georgia. Crises marked her time as mayor. When Floyd protests turned destructive downtown, she pleaded in a live address: “This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos…If you care about this city, then go home.”The moment raised her national profile, though critics blamed Bottoms for not acting quickly enough to tame violence, including the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl who was riding in an SUV near a protest site.
当弗洛伊德抗议活动在市中心演变为破坏性事件时，她在一次电视直播讲话中恳请道：“这不符合小马丁·路德·金的精神。这是混乱……如果你关心这座城市，就请回家吧。”这一时刻提升了她的全国知名度，尽管批评者指责博特姆斯未能迅速采取行动平息暴力，其中包括一名8岁女孩在抗议地点附近乘坐SUV时遭枪击身亡的事件。博特姆斯曾谈及那场悲剧带来的心碎。2021年，她在镜头前声音颤抖地表示，不会寻求连任亚特兰大市长。随后，她在拜登白宫担任顾问。
Bottoms has spoken of the heartbreak of that tragedy. In 2021, she stood before cameras, her voice quaking, and said she wouldn’t seek a second term as Atlanta’s mayor. She later served as an adviser in the Biden White House. Rodney Bryant, who led Atlanta’s police force from 2020 to 2022, said Bottoms made public safety a daily priority. “She never hesitated to provide public safety leaders with the resources we needed to do our jobs,” he said.
2020年至2022年领导亚特兰大警察部队的罗德尼·布莱恩特表示，博特姆斯将公共安全作为每日优先事项。“她从未犹豫为公共安全领导人提供我们履职所需的资源，”他说。
In an interview, Bottoms said she remains proud of her mayoral record, including boosting first responders’ pay and balancing the budget without raising property taxes but wishes she had communicated her decisions better. “Part of the challenge,” she said, “was there was no blueprint for 2020.”
在一次采访中，博特姆斯表示，她对自己的市长履历依然感到自豪，包括提高第一响应人员薪资、在不增收财产税的情况下平衡预算，但她希望当时能更好地沟通自己的决策。“部分挑战在于，”她说，“2020年没有现成的蓝图。”她以此为竞选平台，主张降低生活成本，包括通过扩大医疗补助计划；而杰克逊则表示，他将削减州所得税并引进就业岗位。
She is campaigning on lowering living costs, including by expanding Medicaid, while Jackson has said he would cut state income taxes and bring in jobs. Jackson spent part of his youth in Atlanta’s housing projects with an alcoholic mother and ended up in foster care; he didn’t attend college. “I know what it’s like to have nothing,” he told the crowd at the Dalton rally.
杰克逊童年部分时光在亚特兰大的公共住房项目中度过，母亲酗酒，他最终进入寄养系统；他未上过大学。“我知道一无所有是什么滋味，”他在多尔顿集会上对人群说道。
“I know what it’s like to suffer.”He later built a healthcare staffing empire and expanded into film production, data-center investments and a Texas oil-refinery project, among other ventures.
“我知道受苦是什么滋味。”后来，他建立了一个医疗人员配置帝国，并拓展至电影制作、数据中心投资和得克萨斯州炼油厂项目等多个领域。
Michael Skerritt, a retired accountant at that rally, said he volunteered for Jackson’s campaign after hearing how the candidate rose from foster care and wants to help others in “a system that’s broken.”“That swayed me big time,” Skerritt said.
参加集会的退休会计师迈克尔·斯凯里特表示，他在听到这位候选人从寄养家庭长大、并想帮助“一个已经崩溃的体制”中其他人后，决定为杰克逊的竞选活动做志愿者。“这极大地打动了我，”斯凯里特说。
Jackson still faces friction from a tough primary against Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also clashed with Trump over the 2020 election. Jones and Jackson traded accusations of corruption, bitterness that outlasted Jackson’s runoff win this summer.
杰克逊仍面临来自一场艰难初选的摩擦，他的对手是获得特朗普背书的副州长伯特·琼斯和州务卿布拉德·拉芬斯珀格，后者也曾因2020年大选与特朗普发生冲突。琼斯和杰克逊互指腐败，这种怨恨延续到了杰克逊今夏在决选中获胜之后。
Write to Cameron McWhirter at Cameron. McWhirter@wsj.com