In a recent interview, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that she may run for Georgia governor in 2026. This news comes after Bottoms addresses the claims that President Donald Trump fired her from her position on the President’s Export Council.

“I said… oh, he thinks he fired me too,” Bottoms told Channel 2′s Jorge Estevez. “So I was quite tickled to see one; the president of the United States is thinking of me the day after his historic inauguration at 1:30 a.m.”

“Doesn’t the president have a right to declare to his supporters and to the country that he’s letting go people from a previous administration?” Estevez asked.

“He certainly does, but I’d already sent my resignation to President Biden on January 4th, and I said it would be effective January 20th,” she replied.

Bottoms followed this interaction with her plans to return to Georgia politics.

“When I left the mayor’s office, I always said, ‘Never say never,’” Bottoms said.

“To Georgia races?” Estevez asked.

“To Georgia races,” she replied.

“So you’re saying there could be something you want to run for in our state?” Estevez asked.

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“There could be,” she replied.

“And what could that be?” he asked.

“Well, there will be a governor’s race on the ballot,” she laughed.

“But do you think the people of this state are ready for a female governor, a woman of color, someone with a political past that they can look at and decide?” Estevez asked.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Bottoms replied.

Bottoms was appointed to the President’s Export Council in 2023. She has an extensive career in both law and politics. While in college, Bottoms attended Florida A&M University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications. Following her graduation from Florida A&M, she earned her Juris Doctor degree from Georgia State University College of Law in 1994. She worked as a juvenile attorney before becoming a magistrate judge in Atlanta in 2002.

Bottoms first entered politics in 2009 after winning a seat on the Atlanta City Council, and she was elected again in 2013. She held that role until 2017 and was also the executive director of the Fulton County Recreation Authority in Atlanta. Bottoms served as the mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, she replaced Cedric Richmond as the director of the Office of Public Liaison.