Keisha Lance Bottoms poised to enter race for Georgia governor

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is positioning herself to run for governor of Georgia — a state that has become a pivotal battleground in recent elections.

Bottoms, who served in former President Joe Biden’s administration, submitted the paperwork Monday to raise campaign donations for next year’s race. She issued a statement making it clear that she was not yet ready to announce her candidacy.

“I am honored and humbled by the encouragement I have received as I have considered running for Governor. I am taking an important administrative step in this journey by filing necessary paperwork to establish a Campaign Committee,” she said. “I look forward to making an announcement in the coming weeks.”

Bottoms would immediately become the most high-profile Democrat running in the race. Jason Esteves, a state senator, announced his candidacy for the post last week.

Two other prominent figures have already opted out of the race. Four-term Democratic lawmaker Rep. Lucy McBath suspended her run for governor in March after her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter and Democrats’ nominee for governor in 2014, has also said he isn’t running.

The state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is term-limited, and Cook Political Report lists the open Georgia race as a tossup. If Bottoms wins, Georgia would be led by a Democrat for the first time since 2003. And she’d become the country’s first-ever Black woman governor.

Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022 and was one of the women under consideration to become Biden’s running mate in the 2020 election. In June 2022, Biden tapped her to oversee the White House Office of Public Engagement. Her four years as mayor were marred by several crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic to a city-wide cyberattack during her first three months in office.