Look out Georgia, the Peach State politics got a whole lot more interesting. After a stint in the Biden administration and a season away from the front lines, former mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms is back– but don’t call it a comeback (she’s been here for years). Bottoms officially entered the 2026 governor’s race, and she’s looking to do what no Black woman and no Atlanta mayor has ever done…move from City Hall to the Georgia State Capitol building.
Suggested Reading
Let’s rewind to December 2021, when Stacey Abrams announced she would once again run for governor of Georgia. Already a political figure, Abrams made history as the first Black woman to become a major-party gubernatorial nominee in the country, The Guardian reported. Abrams didn’t just run for office, she built a whole table for Georgia Democrats to sit at.
Running unopposed in the Democratic primary, she set up a high-stakes rematch against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in the November 2022 general election, a race that would test the limits of turnout, messaging and the state’s rapidly changing political landscape.
However, despite all that groundwork, the governor’s mansion stayed red. Twice. Abrams had the vision, but she hit a ceiling in the suburbs and among some rural voters who weren’t exactly buying what she was selling.
“Governor Kemp being an incumbent was going to be very difficult to beat,” Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson said on NPR’s “All Things Considered” podcast in 2022. NPR Congressional Reporter Sam Gringlas also noted how, “The Black and Hispanic turnout rate fell from the last midterms. […] Democrats didn’t do enough direct voter contact, […] they assumed Georgia’s growing diversity would carry them more than it did.”
Enter Bottoms, who announced her bid for Georgia governor in May.
“These days, most Georgians are right to wonder: Who’s looking out for us? Donald Trump is a disaster for our economy and our country,” she said in her announcement video posted on X. “From his failure to address rising prices to giving an unelected billionaire the power to cut Medicare and Social Security— it’s one terrible thing after another.”
The former judge and Atlanta City Council member survived a pandemic, a social justice uprising after George Floyd’s death and a cyberattack on the city during her tenure as mayor of Atlanta. Experts say Bottoms has a unique record; she’s the best-known of the Democrats running, boasts impressive executive experience and was once being considered by Joe Biden as a possible vice presidential nominee. Those combined create an appeal that could be the secret sauce Abrams may have been missing. Not to mention the recent influx of Black Georgia reinforcements.
A new guard of Black mayors is reshaping Georgia politics, especially in once-elusive suburbs like South Fulton, where Carmalitha Gumbs made history. Similar shifts are unfolding in fast-growing hubs where local leadership finally reflects the communities themselves. From Carlos Greer, Locust Grove’s first Black mayor, to Jayden Williams, who unseated a two-term incumbent to become mayor of Stockbridge at just 22 years old, the bench is deeper and more energized than ever.
These local power players are creating a suburban bridge that could funnel votes and legitimacy from the city directly into the heart of the state. If Bottoms– who would be the state’s first Black governor and first Democrat to win the post in a generation– can lean on these local leaders, she won’t have to introduce herself, the neighbors will do it for her.
“I’m going to be the first because I am working to earn people’s votes across the state,” Bottoms said after a November campaign appearance in Columbus, KSAT.com reported. “So just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean that it can’t happen.”
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.