Ex-Atlanta Mayor Bottoms to join Biden campaign as senior adviser

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is set to join President Biden’s reelection campaign as a senior adviser, the campaign confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.

Bottoms worked as senior adviser for public engagement at the White House from 2022 to 2023 and has served as vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She was mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022.

Her move to the campaign was first reported by Ebony just a day before the first presidential debate, which is set to take place in Atlanta.

“We spent four years tormented by the policies and erratic behavior of Donald Trump and another four years of promised retribution to his political enemies is just the tip of the iceberg of the chaos that he will once again bring to America,” she told Ebony.

Bottoms gained national recognition as a surrogate for Biden’s bid in 2020, and she was considered on his vice presidential shortlist before he named now-Vice President Harris to the ticket.

The former mayor’s move to the Biden campaign comes as the president is trailing former President Trump in her home state of Georgia. A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Trump with a 5-point lead in Georgia.

Biden has also struggled to win over Black voters this cycle, and polling earlier this month showed Trump could attract up to a fifth of Black voters.