Keisha Lance Bottoms, Ex-ATL Mayor, Teases Bid For GA Governor: Report

ATLANTA, GA — Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms could consider running for Georgia's top seat after she says she resigned from her federal role, according to a media report.

Bottoms, at her last job, was the senior adviser to former President Joe Biden in his Export Council. President Donald Trump claimed to terminate Bottoms; however, Bottoms shared different sentiments on Instagram.

"You can’t fire someone who has already resigned," she said in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

Since then, Bottoms has told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she may be eyeing a run for Georgia governor in 2026 to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, who will have completed his second term.

“I said from the moment I left the mayor’s office that I was not saying goodbye to politics,” she told the AJC. “I was saying goodbye to that season, and I’m keeping all of my options open. And there are a lot of options in 2026.”

The 55-year-old Democrat served as Atlanta's mayor from 2018-22, but before then, she was a member of the Atlanta City Council.

If she tosses her name in the ring, Bottoms told the AJC she would focus on Medicaid expansion and Georgia health care, as well as public education.

“There’s so much more that can be done to get us on solid footing,” she said in the report. “There’s so many things that we do well in this state, there’s no reason that we can’t do better in these areas.”

The 2026 gubernatorial race could pit Bottoms against GOP Attorney General Chris Carr, who announced his bid in November 2024.