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With less than two weeks until Election Day in battleground Georgia, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is pressing her case for governor even as she trails in campaign cash against Republican Rick Jackson. In an interview that aired Thursday on ABC News, Bottoms said she remains confident despite what she called a “massive” financial disadvantage.
Money, polling and the matchup
“My opponent has put over $100 million of his own money in this race. And this race is still tied,” Bottoms told ABC News’ Linsey Davis, according to the interview that aired Thursday. Bottoms added, “he has the money, but the people still have the power.”
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Keisha Lance Bottoms confident despite being heavily outspent in close Ga. governor race
Jackson, a healthcare executive and billionaire, has declined ABC News’ request for an interview. In a statement, Jackson campaign spokesperson Garrison Douglas said the campaign is “traveling across the state, engaging with voters directly” and running an “historic ground game operation alongside our media strategy.” The statement added that “Rick Jackson is not letting up, refusing to be outworked by anyone, and is committed to sharing his story and vision with Georgians every day.”
A poll released Tuesday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows the race statistically tied, with 46% of likely voters supporting Jackson and 45% backing Bottoms. Georgia has not elected a Democratic governor since 1998; the seat is open because Republican Brian Kemp is term-limited.
Policy priorities and proposals
Bottoms used the interview to outline plans she says would address affordability for Georgians, including suspending taxes on items such as diapers and feminine hygiene products and creating an affordable housing trust fund for the state. She also described a “grocery tax relief plan” that, she said, “would give local governments the ability to suspend or end the grocery tax, because they are collected by local governments.”
She said she would oppose the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and proposed cuts to federal agencies, naming the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as examples.
Her record as Atlanta mayor and attacks from opponents
Much of the campaign critique of Bottoms centers on her tenure as Atlanta mayor. Bottoms chose not to seek reelection in 2021 after what the campaign describes as a “tumultuous” first term marked by criticism of her handling of COVID-19 and city crime.
At a rally in Dalton, Georgia, last week with former President Donald Trump, Jackson said, “Keisha Lance Bottoms had her chance to lead. The results were disastrous,” later telling the crowd, “Bad mayors don’t make good governors.”
Bottoms disputed that framing and attributed a rise in crime to the pandemic. “Just before things shut down — which, we didn’t shut down very long in Georgia — I was touting a reduction in crime in our city,” she told ABC News. “Then there was the pandemic, and then the governor made the decision to reopen Georgia … So, our numbers went up, and we started seeing the trend before many other cities saw it.”
Analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited in the campaign coverage found violent crime in Atlanta rose 59% from 2019 to 2020, compared with a 33% increase in other cities over the same period.
On stepping down and personal context
Bottoms addressed criticism for declining to run for a second term in 2021, calling the choice “deeply personal.” “I completed the four-year term that I was elected to serve,” she said. She described family and health considerations, saying she had children in elementary, middle and high school at the time and had experienced health issues she had not previously discussed.
“If I go to bed like my daddy did and I don’t wake up, where do I want to spend these four years? And for me, it was wanting to be the best version of myself for my family. So that’s very different than quitting,” Bottoms told ABC News.
Potential historic outcome
If elected, Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history; she would also be the first woman and the first Black person elected governor of Georgia. “My family goes back at least five generations in Georgia… I’m a descendant of slaves on both sides,” Bottoms said, calling the possibility “much more personal” for her.
The campaign and polling developments described above were reported in an ABC News interview with Bottoms and in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll and data analysis cited in coverage of the race.
