Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is launching her campaign to be governor of Georgia in a race that may provide an early sign of whether Democrats have momentum in a pivotal swing state.
Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration after she surprised voters by forgoing a second term as mayor, says in a campaign video to be released Tuesday that the reelection of President Donald Trump is a driving force in her campaign.
“November was a turning point for me, and I know it was for people across the state of Georgia and for people across the country,” she told POLITICO ahead of her announcement video.
Bottoms, who would be the state’s first Black governor, is banking that a decline in popularity for Trump as a result of the economic uncertainty sparked by his tariffs will help shift Georgia back to the Democrats.
“Not only did I find myself in fights with Donald Trump on behalf of the people of Atlanta, but also the governor of our state,” a nod to the state’s popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is prevented by term limits from running again.
Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020, and then sent two Democrats, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, to the Senate. Trump won the state in 2024 and the governor’s race could give an indication of the outlook for the next presidential election.
Bottoms enters the 2026 Democratic primary with broad name ID in the Peach State, but questions loom about how well she can extend her reach outside the Atlanta area.
There is also uncertainty about whether Georgia voters will be reluctant to elect her to the state’s highest office after she stunned many Democrats by deciding against seeking a second term as mayor.
She faces a potentially crowded primary with state Senator Jason Esteves and Atlanta-area pastor Olu Brown as declared candidates. Rep. Lucy McBath in March suspended her exploratory bid to help her husband recover from cancer surgery, but left the door open to launching a run for governor in the future.
On the Republican side, state Attorney General Chris Carr launched his bid last year, while MAGA darling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is thought to be eyeing a run after bowing out of a chance to run for Senate next year.
Bottoms’ campaign priorities include helping to build and attract small business to the state, working to address a shortage of teachers by eliminating income taxes for educators and expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“We always talk about beating Alabama and LSU and football, but [those states are] beating us when it comes to health care,” she said.
Her decision to leave office after one term is something she’ll have to wrestle with during the Democratic primary and perhaps beyond. Bottoms had been viewed as a rising national star within Democratic circles, making her move to steer clear of another bid that much more of a shock.
In 2020 after Biden secured the Democratic presidential nomination, she was often mentioned as being on his shortlist for vice president. Once he was elected, she was offered a position in Biden’s Cabinet, but declined.
Her tenure as mayor came during a politically challenging time, as the city faced a major cyber attack and the federal corruption investigation of her predecessor ex-Mayor Kasim Reed as well as the pandemic and civil unrest following the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks.
“I served my entire four years, even when extended the opportunity to leave early and join the Biden administration in the Cabinet role, and I chose to stay,” she said in an interview. “I wanted to complete my term. So I’m proud of that service, so I’m not concerned about that at all.”
In June of 2022, Biden tapped her for a senior adviser where she oversaw the White House Office of Public Engagement. She also served on the former president’s Export Council, a post Trump said he fired Bottoms from upon taking office. She vehemently denies that happened, arguing she resigned prior to Trump taking office.
The timing of her gubernatorial launch comes at an awkward time for Democrats.
It comes amid the release of a high-profile book alleging that the former president suffered significant mental decline at the end of his term and that senior aides helped conceal his condition from the public.
She said her role as senior adviser to the president ended in 2023, and the assertions of any loss in mental acuity by Biden “was not my observation in any of the interactions I had with the President.”
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