Keisha Lance Bottoms Was Atlanta’s Mayor in the Pandemic. Can She Win the Governor’s Race?

Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor and the front-runner on the Democratic facet of the Georgia governor’s race, already has her sights set on the November election, with President Trump as her chief foil.

But her opponents in the Democratic major on Tuesday are betting that she won’t get sufficient votes to keep away from a runoff in June.

The candidates primarily operating for second place have tried laborious to distinguish themselves: Geoff Duncan is a former Republican hoping to attraction to moderates. Jason Esteves is emphasizing his relative youth, as a millennial, and his mixture of enterprise and political expertise. And Michael Thurmond is a low-key reasonable who highlights his many years spent working in state and native authorities.

But they’ve been unified in their argument that Ms. Bottoms has vulnerabilities — specifically, harsh evaluations of her single time period as mayor of the state’s largest metropolis — that would deny Democrats a win in an election the place they’ve excessive hopes of claiming the governor’s workplace for the first time in greater than 20 years.

“Georgians are looking for an alternative option,” Mr. Esteves, a former state senator, stated in an interview. “One that doesn’t have baggage, one that has a clear vision for the future, that gives people something to vote for, not just against.”

As Gov. Brian Kemp, a well-liked Republican, prepares to step apart after two phrases, the Democratic major may appear calm in contrast with the Republican facet of the race, the place Rick Jackson, a billionaire well being care govt, you have poured your fortune into attending to the entrance of a pack that features a few of the state’s best-known elected officers.

Still, Democrats imagine the panorama in Georgia has all the makings of 12 months for his or her social gathering: Mr. Trump’s unpopularity, rising bipartisan frustration over affordability and a base galvanized in half by outrage over the Supreme Court choice weakening the Voting Rights Act.

The pleasure has been mirrored in early voting: Nearly 57 % of the ballots forged to this point have been in the Democratic major, and complete turnout has outpaced the 2022 major election by nearly 20 %, according to Georgia Votesa service tabulating voter knowledge offered by state election officers.

This 12 months’s optimism is constructed on positive factors achieved by Democrats in the state over the previous decade. A protracted, dismal period of virtually assured losses in statewide elections gave approach to newfound viability as speedy inhabitants development precipitated favorable demographic shifts, and diligent groundwork registered and mobilized voters of coloration.

Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator, got here near beating Mr. Kemp in 2018, offering one in every of the earliest indicators of the social gathering’s renewed vigor. She misplaced by about 1.5 share factors, or fewer than 55,000 voters. Two years later, Joseph R. Biden Jr. grew to become the first Democrat to win Georgia in a presidential election in almost 30 years, and in the identical election cycle, two Democrats — Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff — ousted the state’s incumbent Republican senators.

Still, in a rematch in 2022 with Mr. Kemp, Ms. Abrams misplaced by eight factors. Former Vice President Kamala Harris misplaced the state in 2024. And Republicans nonetheless maintain each statewide elected workplace aside from the two Senate seats and management the state legislature.

Ms. Bottoms gained nationwide prominence for her response to the turmoil of 2020. First, she challenged Mr. Kemp and different Republican leaders over their aggressive push to roll back Covid restrictions and reopen companies early in the pandemic. Then, as racial justice protests turned violent and harmful, she was recognized for her plea to demonstrators: “What are you changing by tearing up a city?” She was even mentioned as a potential operating mate for Mr. Biden that 12 months.

But as the pandemic dragged on, Ms. Bottoms grew to become related to the metropolis’s struggles. Crime and violence elevated. The ranks of the Police Department thinned quickly as morale sank. Residents in Buckhead, a rich enclave of Atlanta, tried to secede from the metropolis.

She shocked Atlanta by deciding towards searching for a second time period, saying at the time, “It is abundantly clear to me today that it is time to pass the baton on to someone else.” She joined the Biden administration in 2022 as a senior adviser, main its public engagement workplace for about 15 months.

Her critics argue the disappointing conclusion to her mayoralty offered a significant opening for her rivals to assault.

Her marketing campaign has dismissed the unease as overblown and argues that Ms. Bottoms has a lot to be happy with, pointing to main firms that moved into the metropolis throughout her time period, pay will increase she helped negotiate for law enforcement officials and firefighters, and her work to bolster the metropolis’s provide of inexpensive housing.

“Voters are excited about Keisha’s vision to stand up for our rights, lower costs and take on Trump’s bad policies,” TaNisha Cameron, an advocate for Ms. Bottoms, stated in an announcement. “That’s why she’s leading in the polls, and why she’s the best candidate to win back the governorship for Democrats for the first time in the 21st century.”

The trio of candidates trailing her in the polls say that in a head-to-head matchup, they’ll make a case for themselves as a more sensible choice who can construct the form of coalition vital for a Democrat to win in Georgia.

Mr. Duncan, the state’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023, had been one in every of the Republican leaders who defended Mr. Trump in 2020 as he tried to overturn his losses in the state. Mr. Duncan grew to become an unbiased, then joined the Democratic Party shortly earlier than getting into the governor’s race.

His pitch to Democrats is that he can woo voters the social gathering has struggled to achieve. To some voters, like Rickie Nelson, who supported Mr. Kemp in the previous however is open to voting for a Democrat this time round, the argument is sensible. “I like the fact that he’s like, ‘Hey that’s crazy, I’m not that. I’m switching sides,'” stated Mr. Nelson, 45, who lives in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.

Some Democrats respect that Mr. Duncan stood as much as Mr. Trump however really feel that having a shared enemy doesn’t essentially make him one in every of them. “It feels a bit disingenuous,” Ayron Butler, an proprietor of Black Coffee ATL, a espresso store in southwest Atlanta, stated of Mr. Duncan’s conversion. She additionally had doubts about Ms. Bottoms. “I just don’t see commitment with her, and this is a time where commitment matters,” she stated.

She is voting for Mr. Esteves.

A former Atlanta college board member who owns a well being care clinic and eating places, Mr. Esteves has centered on affordability as a frustration that transcends conventional partisan boundaries, and he has tried to current himself as a recent face.

Mr. Thurmond is the solely candidate in the governor’s race who has been elected to statewide workplace as a Democrat, having served three phrases as labor commissioner. He has additionally been a state lawmaker, a candidate for US Senate and a county-level govt.

As a outcome, he argues, his marketing campaign is much less about promise than confirmed expertise.

Alisha T. Searcy, the chief govt of the Center for Strong Public Schools and a former state consultant, stated she is aware of every of the Democratic candidates in the race and sees a succesful governor in every of them. “We have real choices,” she stated.

Hers is Ms. Bottoms.

She recalled one in every of their earliest conversations, greater than a decade in the past, once they stumbled into one another whereas purchasing at a Dillard’s division retailer. Ms. Bottoms was a metropolis councilwoman, Ms. Searcy in the state legislature.

“She’s a down-to-earth mom, wife, public servant like I am,” she stated. “It’s that ‘I can have real conversations with you and you get it.’”

She believes it was potential for Ms. Bottoms to win the major outright. Even if she does not, Ms. Searcy added, Democrats will head to the normal election unified and invigorated.

“The stakes are too high,” Ms. Searcy stated, “and we understand the assignment.”