Keisha Lance Bottoms is making the jump from local politics to America’s biggest stage.
On June 14, the White House confirmed to multiple outlets that Atlanta‘s former mayor from 2018-21 has been hired by President Joe Biden to be his senior advisor with a focus on public engagement.
“Honored” is the single word Bottoms used as the caption to share the breaking story on her Instagram.
“She led the city of Atlanta with strength through the pandemic, through a summer of protests and pain, and through the mass shooting that left Atlanta’s Asian American community in fear,” Biden said in a statement, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Bottoms replaces Cedric Richmond, a Black man who recently left the position. Hiring Bottoms, a Black woman, is in accord with Biden’s campaign promise to establish a diverse presidential cabinet during his administration.
President Biden has offered Bottoms a position in the past, but she declined. Bottoms was succeeded as mayor of Atlanta by former city councilman Andre Dickens after she announced she would not run for a second term in 2021. She has visited the White House multiple times during Biden’s term and was present for the announcement of the Build Back Better Act in 2021.
Bottoms told Axios she plans to spend most of her time in Washington, D.C., while her family will remain in Atlanta.
