By April Ryan
NNPA
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE – It is official: Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is running for governor of the state of Georgia on the Democratic ticket.
At 6 a.m. this morning, Bottoms made her decision official. The 55-year-old mother, wife, politician, and lawyer served as the city of Atlanta’s 60th mayor and now runs on the Democratic ticket to be governor of the state of Georgia. Bottoms was also on the shortlist for consideration as Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick. A few years later, President Biden courted her for the position of Public Liaison in the Biden administration.
In the lead-up to this decision and announcement, Lance Bottoms talked with Maryland Governor Wes Moore about her run. She has enlisted his campaign manager, Ned Miller, for her gubernatorial efforts.
The former mayor of Atlanta says, “300 thousand people are in this state who don’t have access to health care because we have not expanded Medicaid.” She also focuses on tariffs that have impacted “600 thousand people in Georgia who have jobs directly related to the port of Savannah; that impacts their bottom line.”
Agrobusiness, better known as farming, is the No. 1 industry in that southern state. “They are having to absorb the costs associated with the tariffs Trump is implementing,” added Lance Bottoms. If she wins this race, she will emphasize how she can “best deliver as governor to make it easier for you to make a living.”
Keisha Lance Bottoms is not the first Black woman to run for the Georgia governor’s seat. In 2018, Stacey Abrams ran a gubernatorial campaign. Abrams won the primary but lost the general election. For Bottoms, there are lessons learned, “You take a look at those elections, you take the lessons, you see what went right, and you also see what you can do better and what you can build upon.”
During her conversation with Black Press USA, she was direct in her plans not to take the Black vote for granted. “We can’t take anybody for granted. I’ve never taken any of my supporters for granted. I’m gonna work to earn the support of Black people, white people, Asian people, Hispanic people, however you identify, I’m gonna work to earn your support in this election.”
“What African Americans want is the same thing that other people want: they wanna know what will our elected officials do for us. How will our communities be stronger? How will they be better, and can we look to you in our time of need to make sure that we have elected officials who were thinking about us and fighting for us.” The former lawyer acknowledged, “That transcends race.”
By the way, Keisha Lance Bottoms is the executive producer of a Netflix show, She The People, which follows a fictional character, a Black woman elected Lieutenant Governor in Mississippi. “The timing was not what I orchestrated. I think it’s great timing,” boasted Lance Bottoms.
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