When Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms decided not to seek reelection in May 2021, the announcement sent shockwaves throughout local politics and also created tremors that reverberated on a national scale.
The history-making Bottoms — she is the only person to ever serve in all three branches of Atlanta government as judge, city councilperson and mayor — said the ceaseless tumult of her first term effectively dissuaded her from going after a second term.
“The last three years have not been at all what I would have scripted for our city,” Lance Bottoms said at her May 7, 2021, news conference. Bottoms cited the crippling cyberattack and the Justice Department’s investigation into corruption regarding her predecessor “which seemed to literally suck the air out of City Hall.”
“There was last summer. There was a pandemic. There was a social justice movement. There was a madman in the White House,” Bottoms said.
There is a cadre of candidates ready to serve, as 14 people are running for the top spot in one of America’s marquee cities on Nov 2, 2021.
Flip the page to meet the four women who are seeking to be the next CEO of Atlanta:
