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What Georgians should weigh before handing her the whole state. Sourced.
Atlanta homicides jumped 58% in 2020 — from 99 to 157, the most the city had seen in two decades — and stayed near those highs the following year.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution / APD data, 2021 — [ADD LINK: AJC homicide report]
After 15-year-old Diamond Johnson was shot and killed, Bottoms told reporters she wished she could "wave a wand or make a speech" to make it stop — saying it was the third time as mayor she'd stood before cameras over a bullet that took the life of a child.
Source: WSB-TV, May 2021
The Rayshard Brooks shooting, the police chief's resignation, a torched Wendy's — and officers leaving faster than the city could replace them. APD struggled to fill its ranks as crime climbed.
Source: [ADD LINK: reporting on APD staffing / attrition, 2020–21]
Bottoms blamed the crime wave on Georgia's gun laws, students being out of school, and Gov. Kemp's early reopening of the state — rarely on City Hall.
Source: Fox News / MSNBC, June 2020
Amid the crime surge, Bottoms announced she would not seek reelection — the first Atlanta mayor since World War II not to run for a second term. She called it "passing the baton."
Source: Associated Press, May 2021
When Gov. Kemp challenged Atlanta's COVID orders, the two landed in a very public legal fight — she called his actions "bizarre." Georgia's next governor has to work with a Republican legislature.
Source: [ADD LINK: Kemp v. Bottoms coverage, July 2020]
Passed over as Biden's running mate in 2020, Bottoms later joined his administration as a senior advisor and head of the White House Office of Public Engagement, staying until the Trump administration took office.
Source: [ADD LINK: White House / news announcement, 2023–25]
Her platform leans on Medicaid expansion, universal pre-K, tuition-free community college, new limits on landlords, and a state drug-pricing board — and she has campaigned on rolling back Georgia's abortion law.
Source: [ADD LINK: her 2026 campaign platform — confirm each item]
Bottom line: crime spiked and officers fled while she was mayor. She left rather than run again, spent the next three years in the Biden White House, and now she wants the whole state. Georgia deserves better.