Keisha Lance Bottoms

Keisha Lance Bottoms ( Lance; born January 18, 1970) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 60th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2018 to 2022. Previously, she served as a member of the Atlanta City Council from 2010 to 2018, representing part of Southwest Atlanta. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Bottoms was elected mayor in 2017 and did not seek re-election in 2021. In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Bottoms to serve as vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection at the Democratic National Committee. In 2022, she joined the Biden administration as senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, where she served until February 2023. Bottoms formerly served as a member of the President's Export Council.

Bottoms is the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia in the 2026 election. If elected, she will be the first Black and female governor of Georgia and the first Black woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state.

Early life and education Bottoms was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 18, 1970, to Sylvia Robinson and Major Lance. She was raised in Atlanta and is a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. She earned a J.D. degree from Georgia State University College of Law in 1994. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Early career Bottoms was a prosecutor and also represented children in juvenile court. In 2002, she became a magistrate judge in Atlanta.

Mayor of Atlanta

Election

Bottoms was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017, after receiving a plurality of votes (26%) in a crowded field of candidates on election day, then defeating fellow city council member Mary Norwood in the runoff election. She is the sixth African American and the second African American woman to serve as mayor of Atlanta.

Bottoms was investigated during the mayoral election for several lump payments to campaign staff totaling more than $180,000 that were not reported properly. In October 2017, she voluntarily returned $25,700 in campaign contributions she had received from PRAD Group, an engineering contractor whose office had been raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation the previous month. On November 4, 2017, she called on the attorney general of Georgia to investigate fake robocalls made in her name.

Tenure Bottoms declared that Atlanta was a "welcoming city" and "will remain open and welcoming to all" following then-president Donald Trump's actions regarding refugees in the United States. In 2018, she signed an executive order forbidding the city jail to hold ICE detainees. In July 2019, Bottoms said, "Our city does not support ICE. We don't have a relationship with the U.S. Marshal Service. We closed our detention center to ICE detainees, and we would not pick up people on an immigration violation."

In February 2020, Bottoms released Atlanta's first LGBTQ Affairs report that focused on how various policies, initiatives, and programs can improve the lives of LGBTQ Atlantans. In 2018, she had created the city's first LGBTQ advisory board, which included entertainer Miss Lawrence and activist Feroza Syed. In December 2020, Bottoms appointed the city's first director of LGBTQ Affairs, Malik Brown, and announced the continued LGBTQ advisory board leadership.

Bottoms strongly rebuked Georgia Governor Brian Kemp after he announced the reopening of Georgia businesses in April 2020, saying that it was too early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Atlanta experienced riots in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Bottoms condemned those involved, but later expressed optimism while speaking to demonstrators at a protest, saying, "There is something better on the other side of this." She also repeatedly condemned Trump for "making it worse" and stoking racial tensions, and encouraged people to vote, saying, "If you want change in America, go and register to vote. That is the change we need in this country." In June 2020, many Atlanta Police Department officers went on strike to protest the charges brought against the officers involved in the killing of Rayshard Brooks. Bottoms said that APD morale "is down tenfold".

In early July 2020, as COVID-19 cases escalated in Atlanta, Bottoms issued an executive order rolling back some of its reopening measures from Phase 2 to Phase 1 and requiring everyone within the city limits to wear a facial covering, but no citations enforcing it were issued. On July 15, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued an order suspending all local mask mandates, and on July 16 he filed suit against Bottoms in Superior Court, seeking to invalidate her order and prevent her from talking about it. He did not file similar suits against other Georgia cities with mask mandates, such as Savannah and Athens. A hearing scheduled for July 21 was postponed when the judge recused herself.

In May 2021, Bottoms announced she would not run for reelection in the 2021 Atlanta mayoral election.

2020 presidential election

In June 2019, Bottoms endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. After Biden promised during a March 2020 CNN debate to choose a woman as his running mate, Politico reported her as a possible pick. In June, CNN reported that Bottoms was among his top four choices, along with Representative Val Demings and Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

Bottoms was named a permanent co-chair of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, at which she was featured as a speaker.

Biden administration

After Biden's election, Bottoms was mentioned as a possible candidate for United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In January 2021, Biden nominated Bottoms for a four-year term as the vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation at the Democratic National Committee, a role focused on protecting voting rights and expanding voter participation.

In June 2022, it was announced that President Joe Biden had picked Bottoms to replace Cedric Richmond as the director of the Office of Public Liaison. On February 27, 2023, it was announced that Bottoms would be replaced by Stephen K. Benjamin in April 2023. On July 14, 2023, Biden appointed Bottoms to the President's Export Council. On January 20, 2025, it was reported that she was fired from office by President Donald Trump, although Bottoms has contended that she resigned the day prior without announcing her resignation publicly.

2026 Georgia gubernatorial campaign

On April 4, 2025, Bottoms announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia in 2026. On May 19, 2026, she won the Democratic nomination in a six person primary.

Personal life Bottoms' family history can be traced back five generations to Shepherd Peek, a freedman from a plantation near Crawfordville, who may have served in the Georgia state legislature during Reconstruction.

Her husband is the vice president of employment practices and associate relations for The Home Depot. He joined the company in 2000, after spending more than five years at the law firm of Powell Goldstein. He has served as a board member for several foundations.

Electoral history

Publications