The 60th Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, announced this week she preparing to campaign for to become Georgia’s next Governor in 2026.
Bottoms has mentioned she’s considering throwing her name into the proverbial hat. That picture may have become clearer as the U.S. Representative Lucy McBath has paused her explorations due to her husband’s current treatments for cancer.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us that there is a ‘fierce urgency of now,’” Bottoms said in a statement.” For the people of Georgia, that includes having leaders who aren’t blindly following Trump off of a moral and economic cliff but are focused on the pressing needs in our communities. I have previously publicly shared that I was seriously considering a run for governor and expect to make a formal announcement soon.”
Bottoms chose not to run for re-election in 2021. She became the first Atlanta mayor to not serve a second term since Sam Massell in 1973, after losing to Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. More than likely, Bottoms will have to explain her reasonings in explicit details during what is likely to be a competitive primary campaign.
What does the data say?
Bottoms is very popular among Black women, the backbone and moral compass of the Democratic Party, and within Metro Atlanta. But, the key to Democrats success in 2026 – including gaining control of Georgia’s House of Representatives and U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff’s re-election campaign – will be performing very well in Middle and South Georgia. Throughout those regions, President Donald Trump outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris by an average of 5%-10% in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Another key demographic for Democrats in 2026 is Black men. According to the Brennan Center of Justice, 71% percent of Black men under the age of 50 who voted in 2020 cast a ballot in 2024. By comparison, 81% of White men under 50 who voted in 2020 voted again in 2024. The turnout gap must be addressed by the yet-to-be-named president of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
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