Violent Crime Rose in Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Atlanta – Greater Georgia Could Be Next

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, is running for governor of Georgia in 2026.

Bottoms’ tenure as mayor coincided with a sharp increase in crime in Atlanta. During the first 18 weeks of 2021, Atlanta police statistics showed homicides up 57%, rapes up 55%, aggravated assaults up 36%, and auto thefts up 31% compared with the same period in 2020. Atlanta also experienced a major increase in homicides from 2019 to 2020.

The Atlanta Police Department also experienced a significant morale problem. In June 2020, CNN reported that officers described morale as the lowest it had been in 18 years. The department acknowledged unusually high call-outs, while Bottoms herself said police morale was down “tenfold” and identified the need to repair morale.

Bottoms also faced scrutiny over taxpayer-funded expenses. An investigation found that the city spent nearly $12,000 on limousine services for her during her first five months as mayor. Taxpayers also paid for a $3,900 first-class plane ticket for her husband to attend the Super Bowl in Minneapolis.

A native of Atlanta, Bottoms graduated from Florida A&M University and earned her law degree from Georgia State University. Before becoming mayor in 2018, she served nearly eight years on the Atlanta City Council and worked as a municipal judge. She served as mayor until 2022, then joined the Biden administration as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Bottoms also has a concerning record of playing politics with local independent businesses. When the MLB took away the All-Star game from the city of Atlanta over a recently passed election integrity law, which cost Atlanta small businesses $100 million in economic activity, Lance Bottoms joined Stacey Abrams in backing the decision, calling it “the 1st of many dominoes to fall”. After a black-owned business hosted her opponent, Rick Jackson, Keisha Lance Bottoms released a video warning businesses not to welcome Jackson as her supporters organized a boycott.