Do we like Keisha Lance Bottoms?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A solid record for LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, held back by a campaign-finance fine and unanswered questions about a contractor.
Bottoms grew up in Atlanta, went to Frederick Douglass High, then Florida A&M and Georgia State law school. Her dad was the late R&B singer Major Lance. She worked as a lawyer and magistrate judge, won a council seat in 2009, ran the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority, then beat Mary Norwood in the 2017 mayoral runoff. She was mayor from 2018 to 2022, then ran the Biden White House's public engagement office.
Her early years as mayor were a baptism of fire: a federal investigation into City Hall she inherited and a ransomware attack within weeks. Georgia Trend named her 2020 Georgian of the Year, quoting her saying she came out the other side “still standing, still strutting.” She ended the city jail's arrangement of holding ICE detainees and pushed to end cash bail for low-level, nonviolent offenders.
On the harm check, the record is clean. As mayor she set up the city's first LGBTQ+ Advisory Board, and in a 2026 questionnaire she pledged a statewide LGBTQ+ advisory council, a ban on conversion therapy for minors and to codify marriage equality. On gender-affirming care she said government shouldn't weigh in on medical decisions, and she wants more all-gender restrooms in state facilities. Georgia Equality endorsed her. We found nothing harmful in her words, and no dodgy company she keeps. Climate coverage is thin, beyond a promise to pause new data centres.
The stain is money and paperwork. In 2021 her mayoral campaign signed off on a $37,000 fine over 2017 race contributions. The commission first alleged $382,773 in improper donations, then scaled that back after seeing bank records, and her lawyer said it showed no “intentional nefarious act”. Her campaign had also refused for nearly a year to hand over subpoenaed records. Separately, Fox News reported in April that three contracts went to a firm while she ran the recreation authority and sat on council, with donations from its CEO. Her campaign called that “recycled stories and unfounded accusations”, and the article reports no formal finding.
Crime is her other soft spot. An AJC analysis found reported Atlanta homicides rose 59% from 2019 to 2020, against 33% in other cities, though experts cautioned against pinning that all on her. She points to police pay rises and the public safety training centre. One former supporter called her an “absentee mayor”, and she skipped a second term.
Her governor pitch is hip-pocket stuff: full Medicaid expansion, a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free community and technical colleges, a statewide affordable housing fund and repealing abortion restrictions, which splits voters. She calls herself more of a moderate, and with roughly 360,000 votes in hand she said she was surprised by the margin.