Ex-Atlanta mayor aims for a first with gubernatorial run

No leader of the city has held Georgia’s top post, but Keisha Lance Bottoms is unfazed.

- BY JEFF AMY

FORMER Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will face six others in a Democratic gubernatorial primary.

(JEFF AMY Associated Press)

It’s the longest walk in Georgia politics — the 600 steps from the mayor's office in Atlanta’s towering City Hall to the governor's office in the gold-domed state Capitol.

No Atlanta mayor has ever made the journey to the state's top office, but Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is undeterred.

“I'm going to be the first because I am working to earn people’s votes across the state,” she said after a campaign appearance in Columbus last week. “So just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that it can't happen.”

The former mayor must initially overcome six others in a Democratic primary in May.

If she pushes through that thicket, Republicans lie in wait to attack Bottoms on how she managed crime, disorder and the COVID pandemic as mayor before jolting Atlanta politicos by not seeking reelection.

“She is the easiest to run against,” said Republican strategist Brian Robinson, who calls Bottoms “unelectable.”

Although Georgia Democrats are elated after two unknowns won landslide victories over Republican incumbents in statewide elections to the Public Service Commission on Nov. 4, they need a nominee who can reach independents and even some Republicans for the party to win its first Georgia governor’s race since 1998.

Democrats hoped that Joe Biden winning the state’s electoral votes for president in 2020 marked a lasting breakthrough. But Republican Gov. Brian Kemp handily defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in their 2022 rematch despite Abrams outspending Kemp. And the 2024 presidential election saw Donald Trump substantially boost Republican turnout in his Georgia victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.