Former Senior Adviser to President Biden for Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
By Charlotte Kramon
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms filed papers Monday to raise money for a 2026 run for Georgia governor.
Bottoms, a Democrat who broke Atlanta tradition by not seeking an expected second term as mayor, says she’ll hold an official announcement of her campaign later. But she has repeatedly signaled that she’s entering the race.
As an early supporter of former President Joe Biden, she was among the Black women considered to be his running mate. She left the mayor’s office in 2022 after a tense end to her term and became a CNN commentator before joining the Biden administration as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
“I am honored and humbled by the encouragement I have received as I have considered running for governor,” Bottoms said in a statement.
So far, Bottoms faces competition from fellow Atlantan and state Democratic Sen. Jason Esteves, a lawyer and business owner with much less name recognition, in a race to replace that state’s popular term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Two other high-profile Democrats — U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath and 2014 gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter — have said they aren’t running, creating uncertainty over who will emerge as a top contender.
Bottoms thus far has mostly cast her interest in the governor’s race in terms of opposition to President Donald Trump. In a statement earlier this month, she said Georgia needs “leaders who aren’t blindly following Trump off of a moral and economic cliff but are focused on the pressing needs in our communities.”
Former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has also expressed interest in running for governor as a Democrat, and two-time nominee Stacey Abrams could choose to run again.
Republican Attorney General Chris Carr announced his run for governor last year and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is expected to announce his candidacy.
Bottoms’ surprise decision not to run for reelection as mayor in 2021 came amid a spike in homicides during the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality after George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis a year earlier.
Bottoms won national praise at the time for ordering protestors to “go home” alongside Atlanta hip-hop stars Killer Mike and T.I. but added that as a mother of Black sons, she empathized with people angry about police violence. She promised to review Atlanta’s policing policies.
Meanwhile, Trump and the governor bashed her for COVID-19 and public safety policies and Buckhead, Atlanta’s wealthiest and whitest neighborhood, tried to secede from the poorer, Blacker remainder of the city.
Weeks after Floyd’s death, Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, was killed by an Atlanta police officer after a struggle following a field sobriety test. Atlanta’s police chief resigned hours later. Brooks’ killing sparked renewed protests in the city.
Early in her term, Bottoms eliminated cash bail in Atlanta and ended the city jail’s relationship with federal immigration enforcement agencies along with other city mayors in the wake of Trump’s harsh immigration policies during his first term.
Her tenure as mayor began under the shadow of a federal investigation into corruption during the administration of her predecessor, Kasim Reed. And just a couple of months into her time in office a devastating cyberattack compromised the city’s computer network.
Bottoms helped negotiate a long-term downtown redevelopment project, although Amazon chose to build its second headquarters in northern Virginia instead of Atlanta.
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