Candidates for Georgia governor offer competing visions on data centers, Medicaid expansion at business luncheon

Gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lane Bottoms is pictured at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce event in Athens, Ga. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lane Bottoms is pictured at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce event in Athens, Ga. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

By Ross Williams August 7, 2026 5 min read

ATHENS, Ga. – Data centers and Medicaid expansion were on the menu as Georgia’s candidates for governor made their pitches to the state’s business leaders at an annual luncheon hosted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson took the stage Wednesday at an Athens event center to pitch their policies to a crowd of over 1,000 members of the state’s business community.

“Small businesses in this state are seeing the same impacts from high inflation rates, affordability issues — they’re seeing that too, and so they want to hear what these two candidates have to offer,” Georgia Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark said after the luncheon.

“They also want to know that we’re going to have a chief executive that’s going to continue to help grow the state,” he added, “grow the state’s economy in a quality way for jobs, not just in Atlanta or not just in Macon or Savannah, but in our most rural communities, too.”

Gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, right, is pictured at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce event in Athens, Ga. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

DATA CENTERS