Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta and a senior advisor in the Biden administration, has announced she is running for governor of Georgia. She has framed her campaign as a direct response to President Donald Trump winning reelection in 2024. Bottoms joining the Democratic primary brings a lot of attention to the race, which will be an important measure of the political mood in this key swing state before the 2026 presidential election.
According to The Hill, Bottoms was mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 and dealt with major challenges, including a large cyberattack, the fallout from the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, and the COVID-19 pandemic. After choosing not to run for a second term as mayor, a decision that surprised many in the Democratic Party, she joined the Biden administration in 2022 as a senior advisor, leading the White House Office of Public Engagement.
