Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose moves to end cash bail requirements for low-level offenders earned praise from liberals, launched her campaign Monday to be Georgia’s governor.
Bottoms, a former senior adviser in the Biden White House, filed paperwork to begin receiving campaign contributions, The Hill reported, and is the most high-profile Democrat to enter the 2026 race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
“I am honored and humbled by the encouragement I have received as I have considered running for Governor,” Bottoms said in a statement. “I am taking an important administrative step in this journey by filing necessary paperwork to establish a Campaign Committee. I look forward to making an announcement in the coming weeks.”
Bottoms joined Georgia state Sen. Jason Esteves and the Rev. Olu Brown, founder and former lead pastor at the Impact Church, as Democrat candidates.
Another Democrat, Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp in the past two gubernatorial elections, is considering a third try.
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., filed similar paperwork as Bottoms but suspended her campaign to focus on the health of her husband, who has cancer, according to The Hill.
Jason Carter, the 2014 Democrat nominee for governor who lost to Republican incumbent Nathan Deal, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week he will not run, instead focusing on his wife, Kate, who has brain cancer.
And former DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond said he’s torn about running in part because there’s only a “very narrow path” for a Democrat to win. Democrats have not won a gubernatorial election in Georgia since Roy Barnes in 1998.
Among Republicans, Attorney General Chris Carr entered the race last November, and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is expected to join him, according to the Journal-Constitution. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is also a possible candidate.
“We’ll just wait and see and let the summer play out,” Raffensperger told the Journal-Constitution, adding he’s listening to voters to help him decide “how I can be best able to serve the people of Georgia.”
Bottoms began her mayoral term in 2019 amid a widening corruption investigation of former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration and soon faced a massive cyberattack that hobbled City Hall, according to the Journal-Constitution. Her work on affordable housing and social justice issues, including efforts to end cash bail requirements for low-level offenders, earned applause from many Democrats.
After a protest over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis turned violent in May 2020, Bottoms appealed to demonstrators in downtown Atlanta: “If you care about this city, then go home.”
She also faced criticism over a spike in violent crime and her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which sparked a feud with Kemp.
In 2021, she decided not to seek a second term as mayor, which came weeks after President Joe Biden helped launch her reelection bid. At the time, Bottoms said it was clear to her that it was “time to pass the baton on to someone else.” After a short run as a CNN commentator, she became a senior adviser to Biden for three years.
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