Former Atlanta Mayor Who Oversaw Crime Wave Secures Democrat Nomination For Georgia Governor, Republicans Advance To Runoff
Yesterday, Georgians headed the polls for the primary election. Republicans Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Rick Jackson were the top two finishers and are headed to a June 16th runoff election.
On the Democrat side, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms secured the nomination with 56.2% of the vote. Bottoms served as the 60th mayor of Atlanta from 2018 until 2022 and then served in the Biden administration as a senior advisor. A connection she used to secure an endorsement from Biden, which effectively cleared the Democrat field.
Here is the statement released by the Republican Governors Association in response to her victory in the primary.
“Georgia families know the dangers of Keisha Lance Bottoms’ leadership: higher crime and violent illegal immigrants roaming free. Bottoms’ brief tenure as Mayor of Atlanta was a disaster and now she thinks she’s earned a promotion,” said RGA Communications Director Kollin Crompton. “Nothing has changed with Bottoms – she will destroy the progress Georgia has seen over the past 8 years, just like she did in Atlanta.”
Bottoms term in mayor was marked by constant controversy.
Bottoms gained national prominence in her public feud with Republican Governor Brian Kemp over her attempts to use government power to force Americans to use masks.
She oversaw an increase in violent crime and faced criticism for lackluster response to the George Floyd riots.
Finally, for much of her term, a significant part of Atlanta was trying to secede from the city because conditions had deteriorated so far.
