Keisha Lance Bottoms’ opponent offers job training to Black woman impacted by Trump cuts during debate
TheGrio...
Keisha Lance Bottoms pledged to challenge federal cuts, while her Republican opponent, Rick Jackson, said he would help unemployed Georgians retrain for new jobs.
Georgia gubernatorial candidates, Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican nominee Rick Jackson, made their case to voters during their first and only televised debate on Tuesday evening, less than a month before Election Day on Nov. 3.
The two gubernatorial hopefuls laid out their policies for Georgia’s more than 11 million residents, and took direct questions from Georgia voters. One of those voters was Nosipho, a Black woman who said she was one of the more than 155,000 Black women who lost their jobs in the public sector as a result of President Donald Trump cuts to the federal workforce.
“I am one of many Black women who lost their job due to cuts in federal funding that impacted the organization I worked for. Some states have successfully sued the federal government and partially restored that funding while Georgians have suffered,” said Nosipho, whose last name was not disclosed. The Georgia voter asked the Bottoms and Jackson, “How would you make sure that Georgians receive their rightful share of federal funding?”
Rather than committing to suing the Trump administration over federal cuts, as several states have done, Jackson, a billionaire health care executive, told Nosipho that he would ensure that workers like her are trained for new jobs.
“We’re not going to be able to control Washington. D.C. does good things, they do bad things, and it affects all of us,” said the Republican gubernatorial candidate. He continued, “What I can control is other things, and that is to get you a good-paying job, to get you training for some other types of skill sets so that you have a chance to have an American dream.”
Jackson added, “I want to help you and anybody that’s unemployed show them how to get trained and get another job. That’s going to be a number one priority for me.”
Bottoms offered a different approach and took Jackson to task for his repeated claim that, if elected, he would be just like Trump but with a “southern tongue.”
“He said there’s not a single policy that he disagrees with Trump on,” Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, said of Jackson.
She continued, “That includes cuts to the CDC where countless employees have been laid off. It includes cuts to our Education Department, cuts to our Veterans Department, cuts to our Housing Department, cuts that have impacted hardworking people like you.”
Bottoms vowed to “sue the federal government when appropriate” and “stand up to Donald Trump when necessary.”
“I’m not running to be his favorite governor. I’m running to work on behalf of people like you. And there are so many people across this state who have lost their jobs directly related to the policies coming from the Trump White House,” she said.
As theGrio previously reported, the latest Black unemployment rate increased sharply from 6% to 7%, which is part of a rising trend since Trump returned to office for a second term. Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Trump’s policies are directly responsible for the reversal of Black unemployment.
Ajilore explained that “a lot of this has been driven by Black women,” who have seen steep job cuts since Trump entered office in January 2025. An estimated 110,00 Black women lost their jobs in 2025, and more than 300,000 of them have been left jobless as of the present day—though there are higher projections.
A new poll of Black women conducted by The Highland Project found that 21% say they have been affected by federal job cuts. Cornell Belcher, president of brilliant corners Research & Strategies, who conducted the poll, told theGrio, “There is extraordinary economic angst among African American women, quite frankly, and a level of angst that I have not seen even during recessions.”