Bottoms enters race for Georgia governor with pledge to fight Trumpism

“Right now, people want somebody who’s fighting for them,” she said in an interview. “People have seen me fight. They know that I’m not afraid of Donald Trump. They know that I know how to deliver in uncertain times.”

Bottoms aims to snap a Democratic losing streak for Georgia’s top office that stretches back to 1998. But first, she must emerge from a competitive primary. State Sen. Jason Esteves is already in the race to succeed a term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp, and other prominent Democrats could soon join.

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

Her platform includes expanding Medicaid and slashing the state income tax for Georgia teachers. But Bottoms also showed a willingness to brawl, taking a swipe during the interview at Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a likely GOP contender and Trump ally.

Bottoms, who filed paperwork to run for governor last month, starts her comeback with built-in advantages. She enjoys high name recognition in metro Atlanta and earned national praise for her forceful plea to protesters to “go home” after demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd descended into lawlessness.

She also has a history of deep support among Black women — the party’s most reliable primary bloc — and is still closely tied to Biden, who once considered her a vice presidential running mate and offered her a Cabinet post shortly before he took office.

Still, she must reconcile a record as mayor that deeply divided the state’s largest city. She struggled to contain a surge in violent crime and feuded openly with Kemp over pandemic restrictions, a rift her successor, Andre Dickens, quickly mended.

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

But her tenure might be most remembered for her surprise decision not to seek a second term in 2021, which came just weeks after Biden helped launch her reelection bid. It drew sharp criticism and stunned her allies at City Hall.

In the interview, Bottoms said she had no qualms about becoming the first mayor in modern Atlanta history to forgo a bid for a second term. She pointed to her work expanding affordable housing and guiding the city through the twin crises of the pandemic and racial justice protests.

“My record as mayor is one that I’m very proud of. My decision not to seek reelection was a decision based on that season in my life,” she said. “I’ve continued my public service and, prayerfully, will be able to continue it as governor of Georgia.”

Republicans, meanwhile, previewed a line of attack that focused on rising crime rates during her first term.

“Atlanta was drastically unsafe under Bottoms, and the last thing Georgians want is to bring her policies to the entire state,” said Courtney Alexander of the Republican Governors Association. “Bottoms is a risk Georgians cannot afford.”

‘Who knows?’

A former judge and city councilwoman, Bottoms narrowly won a 12-candidate contest for Atlanta’s top job in 2017. She took office amid a federal corruption probe into former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration and soon weathered a cyberattack that crippled City Hall.

Her embrace of progressive priorities, including ending cash bail requirements for low-level offenders, earned praise from party loyalists and resistance from tough-on-crime conservatives.

She gained national prominence for her impassioned plea during the massive street protests that turned violent after George Floyd’s killing, saying she “hurt like a mother would hurt” over his murder while pleading with demonstrators to stop looting and chaos in parts of the city.

“This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos,” Bottoms said in a televised address replayed countless times on cable networks. “A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city.”

But as her term wore on, the strains on City Hall mounted. A spike in violent crime fueled a failed movement to split Atlanta into two cities. Her handling of the pandemic and the protests led to bitter clashes with Kemp. Turmoil over the shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man killed by an Atlanta police officer following a struggle, led to more violent demonstrations.

Facing growing competition for a second term, Bottoms shocked Georgia’s political world with her May 2021 announcement that it was “time to pass the baton to someone else.” But she insisted the pressures of the office weren’t why she was walking away.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

An early Biden backer, she became a CNN commentator after her term ended, then joined the White House as a senior adviser. Though she said her relationship with Kemp has improved, she still wears her disdain for Trump — whom she once labeled a “madman” — as a badge of honor.

Soon after Trump took office in January, he “fired” Bottoms and three other Biden appointees, even though she resigned days earlier. She expects Trump to loom over the 2026 contest.

“Who knows what Donald Trump is going to do? We don’t know what. I don’t know that Donald Trump knows what he’s necessarily going to do,” she said. “But what I do know is he’s creating chaos in this state right now, that he’s creating anxiety and uncertainty.”

She hopes to paint a sharp contrast with Republicans who are tying themselves directly to Trump, whose approval ratings in Georgia have sagged since recapturing the state in November.

Attorney General Chris Carr, who entered the race in November, has embraced Trump despite the president’s attempt to oust him in 2022. Jones is courting Trump’s endorsement ahead of his expected entry into the race.

And U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the polarizing pro-Trump firebrand, has floated a run after declining to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a favorite of mainstream GOP voters, is also weighing a bid.

If she wins, Bottoms would become the nation’s first Black female governor and the first Black person and first woman to serve as Georgia’s governor.

Bottoms said she knows crossover votes will be critical in a state where Trump remains divisive. She pointed to a quieter record of bipartisan cooperation, including working with Republicans to thwart Jones’ attempt to “steal" Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from city control.

“We had a big divide on COVID. And that got a lot of attention,” she said. “But there were many other things that we worked together on.”

As Democratic tensions grow over Biden’s political legacy, too, Bottoms also acknowledged her ties to the former president could become a flashpoint in the race.

“Am I proud of my service in the White House? I certainly am,” she said, adding: “But I’m going to run on my record and how I can deliver for the people of Georgia.”

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Other takeaways from the AJC interview:

On reaching swing voters:

“The issues that we will focus on don’t have anything to do with party lines. No matter if you’re Democrat or Republican or independent, you want your schools to thrive, you want your communities to be safe, you want to be able to put food on the table, have money to put gas in your car’s tank, and you want to have access to quality health care. Those are issues that transcend party lines. And those are the issues that I’m going to focus on.”

On her long feud with Kemp:

“Brian Kemp and I have a very warm relationship. You all don’t usually write about the things that we agree on, the things that we work together on. But I want people to know that when I believe in something, and I think it’s worth fighting for, whether it’s the governor or Donald Trump, I’m going to fight for them. And that’s what I did as mayor of Atlanta.”

On her record as mayor:

“I am very proud of the four years that I served as mayor. I served the entirety of my term, even when I was given the opportunity to leave early and join the Biden administration and the Cabinet role. I decided to stick with Atlanta to complete my term. I’m very proud of what we were able to deliver.”

On her electoral strategy:

“I’m a battle-tested leader, and people have seen me fight. They know how I’ve been able to deliver. I have executive experience, and I’m going to lean into all of the ways that I delivered, not just for Atlanta, but for our state.”