5 defining tests from Keisha Lance Bottoms’ years as Atlanta mayor

Here are five tests during her mayoral term that help define the debate over her record.

Public safety

Bottoms faced perhaps the defining challenge of her tenure in 2020, when demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder spilled into looting and violence in downtown Atlanta. As storefronts were smashed and police vehicles burned, she delivered an emotional plea that quickly became one of the defining moments of her administration.

“This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos,” she said. “If you care about this city, then go home.”

The protests came during the deadliest year the city of Atlanta had seen in two decades, and her response drew praise from some Republicans.

But the unrest did not end there. Weeks later came the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old Black man fatally shot by a white Atlanta police officer outside a Wendy’s.

The restaurant quickly became the city’s most volatile flashpoint. After it was torched by arsonists, it turned into a hub of lawlessness and violence. The crisis reached its darkest moment on July 4, when gunmen opened fire on an SUV, killing 8-year-old Secoriea Turner.

Bottoms later told the AJC she had wanted to clear the site days earlier but that several local officials wanted more time to negotiate with demonstrators.

The dispute over whether police were ordered to “stand down” is one of the most contested episodes of Bottoms’ tenure.

Testimony in later court proceedings indicated officers were instructed to pull back from the increasingly volatile scene. But former interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant, who led the department at the time, told the AJC that no such order existed and that police coordinated with Bottoms and her aides throughout the unrest.

Hours after Turner’s death, Bottoms delivered one of the defining speeches of her tenure, arguing that the violence undercut legitimate protests for racial equality.

“You shot and killed a baby,” Bottoms said at an emotional news conference hours after Turner’s death, adding: “This random, Wild, Wild West shoot-’em-up-because-you-can has gotta stop. It has to stop.”

Jackson has made the episode central to his argument that Bottoms failed to maintain order. Bottoms points to raises for police officers and firefighters, increased public safety spending and her decision to launch plans for the new training center that evolved into the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

Buckhead secession

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

The political fallout from the rise in violent crime fueled an extraordinary campaign to carve the wealthy Atlanta district of Buckhead into its own city.

Backers of the breakaway argued City Hall had failed to provide adequate police protection and basic services. Bill White, who led the cityhood movement, called Bottoms its “greatest spokesperson.”

They were opposed by every elected official in Atlanta and a broad coalition of local leaders who said it would irrevocably weaken Georgia’s capital. Some major businesses even pledged to secede from Buckhead if the cityhood push somehow prevailed.

The push exposed divisions, too, within the Republican Party. While Lt. Gov. Burt Jones allowed the proposal to receive a vote in the state Senate, it was swiftly squashed by a bipartisan alliance and never came up in the House.

Even so, the politics endured. Republicans still point to the Buckhead movement as evidence that confidence in Bottoms had eroded even within Atlanta. Democrats say it was a one-off effort born of extraordinary circumstances and fueled by pro-Trump forces.

The coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic transformed Bottoms’ administration almost overnight, forcing her to navigate an unprecedented public health emergency while clashing with Republican leaders over how aggressively to respond to the virus.

Bottoms closed dine-in services, imposed mask requirements and urged residents to follow public health guidance, arguing that strict enforcement would save lives. She went toe-to-toe with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who countered that prolonged shutdowns threatened livelihoods.

Soon the dispute spilled over into the courtroom as legal battles over emergency measures turned the city into the center of a national debate over the balance between public health and economic freedom.

Bottoms became a regular presence on cable television and emerged as one of the country’s most prominent Democratic mayors, while Kemp became a favorite among conservatives pushing to rollback regulations.

Jackson is already making the economic fallout a central part of his case. His campaign blames her for the failures of dozens of restaurants during the pandemic, saying her “record of excuses” left Atlanta worse off.

Bottoms casts the same period as evidence of leadership. She said Atlanta maintained balanced budgets, protected reserves and avoided furloughs and tax increases while reviving grant programs and other initiatives for struggling small businesses.

The city-state relationship

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

After years of a fabled friendship between Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and Democratic Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, their successors faced a nearly impossible act to follow. They never really tried.

They had already clashed during the 2018 campaign, when Bottoms criticized the culture-warrior image Kemp cultivated through television ads featuring shotguns and chain saws. But after Kemp’s narrow victory, the two leaders forged a functional, if never chummy, relationship.

Kemp quietly helped block a Republican-backed effort to give the state oversight of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while Bottoms personally lobbied against the proposal.

The two worked together on transportation initiatives and economic development projects that brought thousands of jobs to metro Atlanta. It was never the close alliance Deal and Reed enjoyed, but for a time it proved resilient.

But as the 2020 election neared, the partnership frayed. Bottoms blasted Kemp’s bid to loosen gun regulations, while Republicans accused her of blaming state law for failures at City Hall. The pandemic turned that strain into open hostility.

As the feud widened far beyond COVID, Bottoms criticized Kemp for deploying the National Guard during unrest in Atlanta, calling it “overkill” that could inflame tensions. Kemp countered that Bottoms had failed to keep order in Atlanta, leaving the state to reinforce local police and protect public buildings.

Jackson has folded those disputes into his broader critique of Bottoms, while the Democrat argues that their period of cooperation shows she can effectively work across party lines.

Her decision not to seek another mayoral term

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC

For Jackson, no episode may better capture his case against Bottoms than her surprise decision not to run for reelection as mayor in 2021.

Bottoms had already launched a campaign for a second term. President Joe Biden hosted a fundraiser that raised more than $500,000. And she said her polling and finances left her positioned to win. Yet she abruptly ended the campaign, becoming the first Atlanta mayor in decades not to seek a second term.

Jackson rarely mentions Bottoms’ tenure as mayor without critiquing her decision. At his Cleveland rally this month, he choked up as he told supporters: “I have, because of my background, severe abandonment issues. And let me tell you one thing: I will never abandon you.”

Bottoms has faced questions about the decision since long before she entered the race. She has said she had the resources to run but decided that season of her life had ended.

At an event Monday, Bottoms sharpened that defense. She said President Joe Biden asked her multiple times to join his administration before her term ended and that she declined because she believed she owed Atlanta a full four years. When she accepted his offer, she said, she did so from “a position of strength.”

“I can sit here for an hour to tell you about the things that we accomplished and the things that made you proud. So when I hear this guy, and when I hear people say I abandoned Atlanta, it pisses me off. And the reason being, you don’t get more Atlanta than I am.”

She added: “I cannot abandon Atlanta. I am Atlanta. I’m Atlanta through and through.”