Former state Sen. Jason Esteves told a crowded campaign kickoff party Thursday night that he is the only Democrat who can win the governor’s race in November. In the process, he also took aim at two of his opponents in the Democratic primary — former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
Esteves described Bottoms as “a one-term mayor who, when the city needed her, was absent, with a city divided and your public safety at risk.”
Duncan, he said, “passed some of the worst legislation in the last decade,” including the state’s six-week abortion ban, new voting restrictions and looser gun laws.
“Instead of running for reelection to fix it, he chose not to. He cut and run, paving the way for Burt Jones,” Esteves told the crowd. “I will always fight for you.”
Multiple elected officials turned out to support Esteves, including state Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones and state Sen. Kim Jackson, who approached Esteves nearly two years ago on the Senate floor to try to convince him to consider a run for governor.
“We said, ‘We’ve figured out your life story for the next 10 years,’” Jones recalled. Esteves initially dismissed the idea but eventually came around.
State Sens. Nan Orrock, RaShaun Kemp and former state Sen. Jen Jordan also attended the event.
Concern about Bottoms as a statewide candidate was a common theme in conversations in the room. She leads early polls of the race by a wide margin, while Esteves has been stuck in the low single digits. But the former mayor’s decision to forgo reelection after a single contentious term has raised questions among Democrats about how she would perform at the top of their statewide ticket in November.
“I’m not sure why you would leave that job (as Atlanta mayor),” said Jacob Chambers, a candidate for Atlanta City Council.
Chambers said he is still undecided about who he’ll vote for in the primary.
“I get that it was really hard, but my first question was, why wasn’t her heart in re-election? And why is she running now?” he said.
Bottoms explained to the AJC at a forum last year, “I believe that for everything there is a season. And for me, it was again carefully praying about what was the right decision in that season.”
The idea of “electability” is looming large for Georgia Democrats, who see the midterm elections of President Donald Trump’s polarizing second term as their best chance in two decades to retake control of the Governor’s Mansion. Nominating Bottoms or Duncan was too big of a risk for the people at Esteves’ event.
“There were large numbers of Atlanta residents who weren’t happy with (Bottoms) leaving her post at the height of a public crisis,” said state Rep. Phil Olaleye, D-Atlanta. “She made a decision that was best for her, I don’t begrudge that. But if you’re going to come back and earn the people’s vote, you’ve got to answer why you left the role.”
As for Duncan, Minority Leader Jones added Republicans’ restrictive voting law, Senate Bill 241, to the list of bills he said the former lieutenant governor failed to stop. On the day in 2021 when the Senate passed the bill, Duncan stayed in his Capitol office rather than preside over final debate on the measure.
“He refused to come down on the floor,” Jones said. “That, to me, is not a sign of courage. That’s hiding.”
Duncan tells each audience he’s in front of that he “got it wrong” on several core issues and that he is on board with Democrats on the issues they care about now. He also always says he is the Democrat most likely to win over the disaffected Republicans the party needs to win in November, since he was once one himself.
Although no Democrats want to see an ugly primary election damage their candidates or drain their party’s resources, it may be unavoidable in a six-way race with so much on the line.
Olaleye described Duncan, Bottoms and the entire Democratic field as “teammates.” But he added, “It’s not about right and wrong. It’s about finding the choice that allows us to operate from a position of strength in November. And Jason, to me, is a no-brainer.”
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