Keisha Lance Bottoms focuses on rural Georgia, voting rights during Albany stop

ALBANY — Keisha Lance Bottoms used a campaign stop in Albany on Friday to frame her emerging gubernatorial campaign around voting rights, rural investment and healthcare access, while also wading into growing political tensions surrounding Georgia’s upcoming special legislative session and the future of congressional representation in southwest Georgia.

Speaking to supporters and local officials during a question-and-answer session that stretched nearly an hour, the former Atlanta mayor repeatedly emphasized that communities outside metro Atlanta have felt overlooked by state leadership and said southwest Georgia would remain central to her campaign strategy.

“We know how important Albany was to the civil rights movement,” Bottoms told attendees. “We know how important the state of Georgia has been to the civil rights movement, and I would venture to say this is our movement, this is our moment.”

Bottoms tied those comments directly to voting rights, which she described as a defining issue of the election cycle.

“This week we rolled out a voting rights plan specific to Georgia,” she said. “Doing what we can in this moment to make sure that we are protecting our right to vote.”

Bottoms referenced voting rights through the lens of generational change, noting that her 18-year-old son recently voted in his first election while her mother came of age during the civil rights movement.

“When my mother was 18, they were fighting for their right to vote,” she said. “Now that my son is 18, the thought that we are fighting to continue to protect his right to vote really speaks to the magnitude of this moment.”

Her comments come as Georgia remains a national focal point in debates over election laws and access to voting following the passage of Senate Bill 202 in 2021, which tightened several voting procedures statewide and drew both praise from Republicans and criticism from voting rights advocates.

Bottoms also addressed the special legislative session recently called in Georgia, where lawmakers are expected to revisit congressional and potentially legislative district boundaries following ongoing legal and political disputes over redistricting maps.

The special session has drawn heightened attention in southwest Georgia because of concerns surrounding Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, currently represented by long-time Democratic Congressman Sanford Bishop Jr.. The district, which stretches across much of rural southwest Georgia, has historically served as one of the few majority-black congressional districts in the Deep South.

Asked what she anticipated from the session, Bottoms said she believed Republican lawmakers would attempt to reshape political power ahead of the 2026 elections.

“You all know the No. 1 seat they’re targeting is Sanford Bishop’s seat,” Bottoms said. “There’s not a lot that we can do right now with this special session other than show up and vote, and that’s a lot.”

She continued: “I believe they’re going to do everything that they possibly can do to make it difficult for Democrats to get anything done.”

The issue of economic development in rural Georgia produced one of the event’s most pointed exchanges during a lengthy question from Early County Commissioner Jeff Haynes, who challenged Bottoms over her comments supporting a “pause” on data center expansion in Georgia.

Haynes argued that southwest Georgia communities often feel ignored by state leaders and said large-scale projects such as data centers could provide desperately needed economic stability for struggling rural counties.

Referencing the closure of a paper mill in Early County and the economic strain that followed, Haynes described efforts by local officials to recruit new industry and warned against dismissing data centers outright because of environmental concerns.

“We don’t have the economics that Atlanta has,” Haynes said. “We don’t have the industry that they have.”

Haynes pointed to projected tax revenue and construction jobs tied to proposed developments in rural Georgia and asked how Bottoms planned to work across political lines while still supporting economic growth in underserved areas.

Bottoms responded by clarifying that she was calling for a temporary pause — not a permanent ban — on data centers while state officials evaluate their environmental and utility impacts.

“I said a pause, not an end,” Bottoms said. “I completely hear you on that.”

She acknowledged the economic appeal of such projects, citing examples in Columbus and other Georgia communities where data centers have generated tens of millions of dollars in local revenue.

“My concern is we don’t know the environmental impact,” she said. “I just want to know all the facts.”

Bottoms also used the exchange to emphasize her willingness to work across party lines if it benefits local communities.

“I will work across the aisle with anybody who is willing to help our communities,” she said.

Notably absent from Friday’s discussion was any direct question regarding violent crime or public safety — issues that are likely to become central lines of attack if Bottoms formally enters the governor’s race.

During her tenure as mayor of Atlanta, the city experienced a significant increase in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest following 2020 protests. While crime rose in many major American cities during that same period, Atlanta became politically symbolic in broader Republican criticisms surrounding policing, urban governance and Democratic leadership.

Political opponents are likely to frame those statistics and her handling of public safety as vulnerabilities in a statewide race, particularly in more conservative and suburban regions of Georgia where crime messaging has remained politically effective.

At the same time, supporters often point to those same years as evidence of Bottoms’ executive experience under extraordinary pressure. As mayor of Georgia’s largest city, she was forced to navigate overlapping crises involving public health, economic instability, civil unrest and policing decisions in real time.

Supporters argue that her willingness to make rapid decisions during periods of uncertainty — including emergency public health measures during the pandemic and highly visible responses during moments of national unrest — demonstrated executive decisiveness that many voters may view as necessary in a governor.

Throughout Friday’s event, however, attendees focused far more heavily on healthcare access, voting rights, childcare, education and economic investment in rural communities than on criminal justice or policing.

Bottoms repeatedly returned to the theme that rural communities feel disconnected from state leadership concentrated around metro Atlanta.

“What I hear repeatedly are people saying young people don’t want to come back to their hometowns because there’s nothing there,” she said. “We are losing population in our cities outside of the metro Atlanta area.”

Friday’s stop in Albany was part of a broader southwest Georgia campaign swing that also included visits to other rural communities before Bottoms departed for additional events in Thomasville and Valdosta.