No Black woman has ever been elected governor. Georgia could change that Tuesday.

No Black woman has ever been elected governor of a U.S. state. Keisha Lance Bottoms, 56, the Democratic nominee in Georgia, is asking voters to change that on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in a race against a Republican billionaire who has spent more than $200 million on ads attacking her record.

Former President Barack Obama campaigned for her and for Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia on Wednesday, six days before Election Day. Early voting ends Friday.

The history is local as well as national. Bottoms is the third consecutive Black woman Georgia Democrats have nominated for governor. Stacey Abrams lost to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 and again in 2022. Bottoms is a former Atlanta mayor who also served as an adviser in President Joe Biden’s White House.

Her opponent, Rick Jackson, is 72. His campaign and supporters have built their case on her time as mayor, arguing that crime rose and Atlanta declined on her watch. One line used against her is that she “let Atlanta burn”, a reference to property damage during the 2020 protests. Bottoms answers that Atlanta’s crime spike in those years tracked the national rise during the pandemic. “When a national crisis poured into Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms stood up,” she has said.

Political analysts told the Associated Press that Black women candidates face tougher scrutiny of their executive experience than other candidates do. Running a major city through a pandemic and the 2020 protests is the record the attacks are aimed at.

She has leaned instead on policy. Bottoms wants to expand Medicaid in Georgia and invest in education. Her campaign says policies coming from Washington are raising prices and threatening Georgians’ access to health care.

The Democratic Governors Association has put $10 million into the race.

Bottoms has spoken about what the nomination means beyond Georgia. “We didn’t believe as a country that the nation would elect a Black president … and it happened,” she told ABC News. “So it’s possible, it just hasn’t happened yet.”

Nineteen Democratic women are running for governor this year, a record, up from 16 in 2022. Two others would also be firsts: Deb Haaland in New Mexico, who would be the first Native American woman to lead a state, and Gina Hinojosa in Texas, who would be the first Latina governor there.

Early voting in Georgia ends Friday. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.