Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has threatened former mayoral candidate Mary Norwood with legal action if she doesn’t apologize for statements she made earlier this year.

In June, Norwood told a group of young Republicans in Buckhead that she lost the mayor’s race to Reed in 2009 because he used confidential lists obtained from Atlanta’s Housing Authority to locate voters who no longer lived in the city, but were still registered to vote there. Norwood said Reed’s campaign approached these voters and convinced them to cast ballots for him.

In a letter dated Friday, an attorney for Reed told Norwood that her comments had damaged the mayor and that she needed to perserve all records related to her statements and publicly retract them.

Norwood said Reed was trying to harras and intimidate her, in a statement on Monday. She added that he “apparently is having a difficult time relinquishing his job as mayor.”

MYAJC.COM: REAL JOURNALISM. REAL LOCAL IMPACT.

The AJC's Stephen Deere keeps you updated on the latest in the Atlanta mayoral race and everything else going on at City Hall. You'll find more on myAJC.com, including these stories:

Never miss a minute of what's happening in Atlanta politics. Subscribe to myAJC.com.

About the Author

Keep Reading

Security wait times at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ranged from seven to 15 minutes around 3 p.m. Sunday, July 6, 2025, as travelers returned from the long Fourth of July weekend. (Gray Mollenkamp/AJC)

Credit: Gray Mollenkamp

Featured

University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue said joining neighboring states to form a new accreditation agency will “keep Georgia’s universities among the best in the nation." (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC