At a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Atlanta that featured former President Barack Obama as its keynote speaker, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms referred to her own slim margin of victory in the 2017 mayoral runoff as a reason for Georgians to get to the polls on Tuesday.
Bottoms won that race against then fellow City Councilwoman Mary Norwood by 832 votes.
“Every vote matters,” Bottoms said Monday during a drive-by rally at Turner Field. “I stand here as the 60th mayor of Atlanta as a testament to that reality.”
She said the victory allowed her to create the city’s first coordinator of LGBTQ affairs, devote $250 million to affordable and workforce housing and raise the minimum wage of city employees to $15 per hour.
“With just 832 votes, these reforms were able to take shape in the crown jewel of the south,” Bottoms said. “What I know about tomorrow, these margins will be just as slim.”
Several other prominent state Democrats also spoke at the event, including former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and U.S. Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Various polls over the last several days have shown that Biden and President Donald Trump locked in a virtual tie for Georgia’s 16 electoral college votes.
Georgia last voted for a Democrat in 1992 when Bill Clinton defeated President George H.W. Bush.
Bottoms was one of first large city mayors to endorse Biden last year. She said she did so because when she told him about reforms in the city, he asked what he could do to help the city do more.
“I have an optimism, Georgia, that says we will get this one right,” Bottoms said. “And we will make history, Georgia, because we know Joe.”
