Keisha Lance Bottoms Interview: ‘I'm Standing Up and I'm Fighting Back'

Yahoo

21-05-2025

When Keisha Lance Bottoms first ran for mayor of Atlanta in 2018, part of her campaign's appeal was that she was deeply rooted in Black Atlanta.
Supporters loved to wear T-shirts emblazoned with 'My mayor's name is Keisha' from the barbershop to the neighborhood BBQ.
Proudly repping the city's southwest side, she declared victory after a heated run-off against a feisty white opponent whose campaign threatened to end Atlanta's 44-year run of Black mayors.
With promises to address an affordable housing crisis and public safety, and to clean up city government after several employees from the previous administration were indicted in a federal bribery investigation of City Hall, Bottoms confidently took the helm as Atlanta's 60th mayor.
But the honeymoon didn't last long.
Bottoms, only the second Black female mayor in Atlanta's history, was soon facing headwinds under the overreach of the first Trump administration, a crushing pandemic, and protests over the police murder of George Floyd.
For many, their lasting image of Bottoms — and one that thrust her onto the national scene — was as an impassioned and frustrated politician denouncing vandalism and violence in the city's streets. Pleading for calm during a press conference, she called out protesters for tearing up their beloved city during demonstrations over the death of Floyd.
'What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta,' Bottoms said. 'This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos.'
After her remarks went viral, she was soon being name-checked as a potential 2020 running mate for Joe Biden. The woman who was the only Atlanta mayor to serve in all three branches of government was quickly branded a rising star within the Democratic Party.
Which is why supporters and critics alike were puzzled when Bottoms issued an open letter online announcing her decision to no longer seek a second term in 2021. Titled 'Dear Atlanta,' the message was clear that her time in office had taken a toll.
'The last three years have not been at all what I would've scripted for our city,' Bottoms said at her final press conference, where she referenced managing a debilitating cyberattack on City Hall records and additional racial unrest after the Atlanta police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in 2020, and referred to President Donald Trump as 'a madman in the White House.'
But the former prosecutor and married mother of four, who also spent eight years on the Atlanta City Council and logged two years as a Fulton County Superior Court judge, wasn't completely finished with politics.
Bottoms headed to Washington to serve in the White House as director of the Office of Public Engagement and as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden from 2022 to 2023.
And now, as the country grapples with the whipsaw nature of Trump's second term, Bottoms, 55, told Capital B Atlanta she launched her gubernatorial campaign because she felt a renewed call to elected service.
'November was a turning point for me.' Bottoms said in a telephone interview on the morning of her gubernatorial announcement. 'Like so many people, I woke up after the election wondering what could I do in this moment.'
Bottoms reenters the political spotlight in the Peach State looking to focus on expanding Medicaid, eliminating income tax for teachers, taking on corporate landlords to create more access to affordable housing, and supporting small-business owners.
She would become just the second Black woman in state history to run for governor on a major party ticket if she wins her party's nomination next May. Stacey Abrams became the first in 2018 when she launched her first of two historic bids. Abrams has expressed interest in a third attempt next year, but so far hasn't made it official.
Other prominent Georgians who have expressed an interest in running for governor, but have not made an official declaration, include Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, both Republicans, and former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond and state Rep. Derrick Jackson, from Tyrone, who are both Democrats.
Fellow Democrat Jason Esteves, a state senator representing Atlanta, and Republican Attorney General Chris Carr are the only other declared candidates in the 2026 gubernatorial race so far. Carr threw his hat in the race in late November. Esteves entered the contest on April 21.
The Bottoms campaign released a video entitled 'For Georgia' to announce her gubernatorial run after weeks of speculation she would enter the race. She pulled no punches as she criticized Trump's impact on Georgia residents.
'This is a defining moment for Georgia and for our country,' Bottoms said in the video, which features an homage to her late grandmother and her five-generation lineage that hails back to a Georgia plantation. 'With chaos in Washington, Georgians need a leader who will stand up for them. I'm running for governor to fight for Georgia families and deliver the leadership they deserve.'
In a wide-ranging interview with Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday, Bottoms explained her decision to run for governor, her plans to take on Trump's DEI ban and ICE raids, abortion rights, and what she's prepared to do in order to reenergize Black voters to send her to the Gold Dome.
Here are highlights from our conversation with Keisha Lance Bottoms. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Keisha Lance Bottoms: I served as mayor of Atlanta for three years under Donald Trump as president, and although I didn't vote for Trump, I don't think that'll be a surprise to anybody. I did hope that this Trump 2.0 term would be different, and in so many ways, it's been worse. So my service as mayor, my decision not to seek reelection, was about that season in my life, and we are all in a different season. I'm standing up and I'm fighting back. And for me, fighting back means that I am presenting myself as a candidate for governor. My family goes back five generations, at least in this state, we are able to trace our family to a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia. So I know this state well. I know the opportunities that it's offered to my family. I know what's possible when you have leaders fighting for you. That's why I'm running for governor.
As mayor of Atlanta, expanding our affordable housing stock was a cornerstone of our administration, even in the midst of the pandemic and all the challenges that presented, we were able to add 7,000 affordable and workforce housing units to our stock in Atlanta. And when it comes to corporate landlords, I've been paying very close attention to a bill that was presented in Virginia, and it sought to put a cap on the type of companies that could make these investments in communities. We're not trying to restrict people from being able to buy property and to use their money, but what we are particularly focusing on are corporate landlords who are buying up entire communities. They're buying up entire neighborhoods. It's making it difficult for people to be able to afford houses. For those who are renting homes, it's often difficult for them to get somebody on the telephone to respond to the challenges that they are having if they need a repair in their home. … We're going to look across the country and see what's working best to help manage corporate homeownership … in the state of Georgia.
So, I have to remind people, it wasn't just 2020 that we were able to turn Georgia blue. We also sent Sen. [Raphael] Warnock back to the Senate in '22, and we saw that there was a split ticket. The state went red for the governor's race, and it went blue in the Senate race. So we know that it's possible, and we will continue to remind people just how significant one election can be for their livelihoods. If you think about what Donald Trump has done to employees across Georgia, from gutting the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to laying people off and moving government offices, all of this is the result of one election. … We're the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, and being able to remind people in the same way that John Lewis reminded us, our vote is [the] most powerful tool we have, and we can't ever afford to sit out elections. So it's going to be about visiting communities across Georgia, earning the vote, the respect and the support of people across the state.
I'm going to talk directly to Black men … listening to them directly about why they have been discouraged [and] what has maybe made them say, 'I don't know that anybody is listening to me.'
We can't take anybody for granted, and I think Black men are getting a bad rap. Our democracy doesn't hang in the balance because one group has said that they are frustrated and they don't feel heard. It's about all of us. So I'm going to talk directly to Black men — I've got a lot of them in my house, so I hear a lot — but listening to [Black men] directly about why they have been discouraged [and] what maybe made them say, 'I don't know that anybody is listening to me.'
What I did as mayor, we were not directly responsible for public health, that's the responsibility of the county. But it didn't stop me from putting a leader in place to make sure that we were seamlessly coordinated with the county and the state on our health-related issues. I had no idea that we would face a pandemic. But I knew we needed coordination on things like our HIV/AIDS rates and other chronic diseases that were plaguing people in Atlanta. So in the same way, as governor, I'll make sure that we have people in place who are serious about public health. It won't be a situation like we've seen with the [Georgia Maternal Mortality Review] committee that was charged with examining issues with women who died in childbirth, and when the governor didn't like the results they came up with, they abolished the committee. We want to rely on science. We want to rely on data. We want to have solutions because in Georgia, we have some of the highest rates in the nation, whether it's chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure to the challenges we've seen with maternal mortality rates. So I'll make sure that I have people who aren't afraid to tell me the truth to lead us in public health and also making sure we're getting ahead of the curve and coordinating and standing in the gap — especially for those programs that are being gutted by Donald Trump.
So I will use everything in my power as governor to take us back to Roe v. Wade, the law of the land for 50 years that served this country well.
I would use the power of the governor's office to put us back where we were with the parameters of Roe v. Wade. We now have a six-week abortion ban. And what people need to realize, especially when you're looking at the situation that the Smith family is facing, it's not just about women who are attempting to terminate pregnancies. You know, it's the South, people are still very conservative [with] their thoughts on abortion and what that means. I respect that, but it's also about women who are experiencing miscarriages. And now it's about a young woman who has been declared brain dead, and her family does not have the ability, in consultation with her doctor, to make a decision as to whether or not she'll remain on life support. I don't think any family, no matter what you think about abortions, wants to be faced with that dilemma. So I will use everything in my power as governor to take us back to Roe v. Wade, the law of the land for 50 years that served this country well.
As it relates to Target, I certainly understand the sentiment. I had a great deal of respect for Target and what it did in terms of promoting Black vendors. So I respect and hold in high regard our ability to mobilize. I am concerned about how it will affect Black brands that are carried in Target. … I'm concerned about people who work at Target. In some communities, it's the only grocery store they have access to in their communities. So it really is a double-edged sword. I hope that not just Target, but all other companies looking at how they are handling DEI don't just swing the pendulum the other way because they're concerned about pressure. Sit down with leaders like Jamal Bryant and other leaders who are saying, 'We have ideas about how you can do things better and differently.' … As it relates to DEI in general, we're seeing the hands of time turn back. And what we don't need to do is allow people to define DEI as something negative. DEI is not just about Black people. It's about women. It's about communities that have not had a seat at a table, LGBTQ communities. It's about white women who are seeking to get contracts and entrée into industries that they otherwise may not have had an opportunity to have entrée into. We can't allow that to now be defined as something dirty and ugly.
I'm deeply concerned about the administration's efforts to suspend due process and to eliminate habeas corpus. [Trump's] trying to gut the Constitution before our eyes.
I'm deeply concerned about the administration's efforts to suspend due process and to eliminate habeas corpus. [Trump's] trying to gut the Constitution before our eyes. I don't think anybody wants dangerous criminals on our street, and that doesn't have anything do with an immigration status. … We need to be thoughtful about how we are pursuing our policies [and] not just do gimmicky things to say you are working on immigration. Be thoughtful about how you're going to address the immigration challenges that we have had in this country. The way to do that is not to eliminate positions for immigration judges. Add more people who can help process asylum applications. Look at what's working right and expand from there. Don't just jump off this cliff because you think it's politically expedient to do something that gets attention and doesn't solve any other real issues that we have.
I supported the training center, and I think it would have been great if the petitions had been counted and that process had gone through as well. But I'm glad that the training center is open. We want well-trained police officers and firefighters in our communities. The police academy was in disrepair. The fire academy was even worse. But whether you agreed or disagreed, it was necessary. People have to remember, police are responding to everything. If it's someone who's having a domestic issue at their home, or somebody who's responding to a fender bender, we have to have police officers. They're necessary in our society. We want our firefighters to be trained to respond if, God forbid, we have a fire at our home, and we have to have somewhere to train them. I think ultimately, the way the funding was allocated was very different than what was initially negotiated by our administration. But each administration gets an opportunity to put its thumbprint on what moved forward and what was done. So I can't speak to decisions that the current administration had or decisions they made, but I still support the academy.
I'll work with Trump where I can work with Trump. And those things he's doing to hurt Georgians — I'm going to fight for us. I served as mayor for three years while Trump was in office, so I'm no stranger to having to stand up to his administration and to push back on policies that are unfair to our cities. I won't hesitate to push back on policies that are harmful to people across Georgia. I've been in battle with him before, so I'm not afraid to do it again.
My grandmother would be so tickled by this. I know it's nothing that she ever could have imagined. I remember when I was getting ready to go to law school, she kept saying, 'Can't you teach [at a school] like me? You had enough schooling.' [She was a] practical woman, but always cheering me on in every single thing I ever set my mind to do. I know she's smiling down from heaven, a great cloud of witnesses. I'm just very proud to have her featured in this ad.
Additional reporting by Chauncey Alcorn
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