Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says she won't seek reelection
Source: Washington Post
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), an early Biden supporter who was touted as a potential running mate, said Friday she would not seek reelection this year because she no longer had the fight in her heart to continue in the job for another four years. During a sometimes emotional news conference at City Hall, Bottoms told reporters she had been torn since her early months in office about whether she would seek reelection. Bottoms added the past year has been an exceptionally difficult time to lead the city, and that it was time to give voters the opportunity to select a new mayor.
“It is time to pass the baton on to someone else,” Bottoms said, noting that that is why there are elections every four years. She noted everything the city had been through over the three years, including a crippling cyberattack and a federal investigation that she inherited from the previous administration. The last year was especially difficult. “There was last summer. There was a pandemic. There was a social justice movement. There was a madman in the White House,” Bottoms said, referring to former President Donald Trump and the unrest that engulfed Atlanta and other cities following the killing of George Floyd. “And at every turn, and every opportunity, this city rose above and I am so proud of that.”
Bottoms, who is struggling to combat an increase in crime in the city, said there was no single reason for why she decided not to seek a second term. She noted she had already raised more than a half-million dollars for her campaign, and had received private polling that showed her easily ahead in the mayor’s race. “I can be mayor again,” Bottoms said, but added “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.” But Bottoms referred to “a divine voice inside all of us” that helped her reach her decision. “This is not something I woke up and decided yesterday,” she said. “This is something I have been thinking about for a very long time.”
Bottoms already had at least one high-profile challenger for the Nov. 2 election — Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore — and the incumbent mayor’s decision not to seek reelection is likely to attract several more candidates. Bottoms, 51, who was elected mayor of Georgia’s capital in 2017, gained a national profile in the wake of last year’s unrest following the death of Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Bottoms turned down a role in Biden’s Cabinet in December, saying she wanted to focus on the people of Atlanta.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/georgia-democrats-atlanta-mayor/2021/05/07/34c3bf9e-af2b-11eb-acd3-24b44a57093a_story.html
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