Bottoms wins Democratic nomination for governor

(Georgia Recorder) — Georgia Democrats had seven candidates to choose from for their nomination for governor, but they knew who they wanted – former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Bottoms won a majority in the Democratic primary Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, clinching her party’s nod without the need for a runoff.

“With everything that we have faced, people rightfully ask, can it be done and can we win,” Bottoms said in an acceptance speech at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta. “We know the answer is absolutely yes.”

She took aim at both of the Republicans who could be her opponent after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson settle their party’s nomination in a June 16 runoff. Bottoms said she’s a “fighter – someone who can stand up to Donald Trump and to all of the pain that’s raising costs, that’s hurt our economy, that threatens the rights that generations before us fought for and died for.”

“The only people that Burt Jones and Rick Jackson have fought for are themselves,” Bottoms said.

Whatever the general election holds, no other Democrat could overcome the fact that the 56-year-old Bottoms was well-known across the state and was the only Black woman candidate for governor at a time when Black women are the bedrock of Democratic support in Georgia.

She beat six candidates, including former state Sen. Jason Esteves, former state labor commissioner and DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond, and Republican-turned-Democrat Geoff Duncan, a former lieutenant governor. Although Esteves outraised Bottoms, Thurmond had more experience and Duncan argued he could win over moderates and even Republicans, none managed to draw close.

No former Atlanta mayor has ever become Georgia’s governor, where politics has at times featured a strong strain of hostility to its largest city. No Black person or woman has ever been elected governor, either. Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams tried to break those racial and gender barriers in 2018 and 2022, but fell short both times against Republican Brian Kemp.

Democrats are trying to win the governor’s office for the first time since 1998, when Roy Barnes won his only term. Party leaders argue they have a real chance of victory, pointing to the unpopularity of Trump, the strong positioning of Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff as he seeks reelection and the routs that two Democrats achieved last year in winning special elections to the state Public Service Commission.

But Democrats have raised and spent only a tiny fraction of the more than $100 million that Republicans have dumped into what is the most expensive gubernatorial primary in Georgia history. One of Bottoms’ primary tasks in the coming weeks will be to try to make up that fundraising gap, with her campaign hoping Democrats will open their wallets.

Republicans have already been targeting her for the city’s problems with crime, disorder and the pandemic before Bottoms became the first Atlanta mayor in decades to not seek reelection.

Bottoms has sought to burnish her record, touting a memoir, “The Rough Side of the Mountain,” that she referred to in her acceptance speech. It recounts her childhood with a ‘60’s soul singer father who went to prison for dealing cocaine and a mother who then took cosmetology classes to support her children. Bottoms argues her mayoral record is a plus, calling herself “battle-tested” and won a rare endorsement from former President Joe Biden after serving in his administration.

Rapper Killer Mike, also known as Michael Render, called Democrats, especially Black Atlantans, to unite into a “coalition” to support Bottoms.

“It means no matter what your special interest is, you have to realize we win no war without allies,” he said. “And I don’t have time to be nit-picking what I don’t like about you to let that get in the way of an allyship.”

The top Democrats had similar policy views on many subjects, with each calling for the expansion of Georgia’s Medicaid program to more uninsured adults and each saying they would seek to roll back Georgia’s restrictions on abortion.

Bottoms pledges an expansion of the state’s existing 4-year-old prekindergarten program and income tax cuts and pay raises for teachers. She has also been raising the alarm that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on voting rights could reverse Black gains in politics, even as she emotionally recounted her family’s origins in pre-Civil War slavery.

“We will not allow this state to go backwards,” Bottoms said. “As the great urban poet once said ‘I ain’t never scared.’”