AJC interview: Bottoms talks casinos, 2020 unrest and Joe Biden

With less than a month until Election Day, Keisha Lance Bottoms sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for an interview on her agenda, her record as Atlanta mayor and how she would govern a state long dominated by Republicans.

The interview touched on dozens of topics and comes at a pivotal moment in the race for governor, with Bottoms locked in a tight race against Republican Rick Jackson ahead of their first and only debate on Tuesday and early voting to begin on Oct. 13.

If elected, Bottoms would be the first Democrat to lead Georgia since Roy Barnes left office after his 2002 defeat. She would also make history as the nation’s first Black woman elected governor.

The AJC has also invited Jackson to participate in an interview with the Editorial Board ahead of the November election.

Here are seven takeaways from the conversation on Friday:

A bet on casino gambling

The Democrat went further than simply supporting a statewide vote on casino gambling, casting legalization as an economic development tool for struggling communities.

She said projected revenue topping $300 million would help expand pre-kindergarten access and close other budget gaps.

She also left open the possibility of casinos beyond metro Atlanta, noting that Albany officials are already eying a struggling riverfront area for a possible project in Southwest Georgia.

But she said questions about how many licenses are issued — and where — should wait until lawmakers and voters clear the hurdle of legalizing them.

“I want voters to be able to decide if it could be a significant revenue source for us that can help us fully and adequately fund pre-K and also address some of these other budgetary shortfalls we have,” she said.

Georgia is one of the most populous states that still bans sports betting and casino gambling, and efforts to legalize them faced concerted opposition from legislative leaders and GOP governors.

A call to scrap the State Election Board

She is seeking sweeping changes to Georgia election law, including eliminating the State Election Board, allowing same-day voter registration and expanding access to voter registration.

The Democrat framed the proposals as a response to years of Republican-backed changes to election laws amid Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud.

“We just want to make sure that people who are eligible to vote don’t have barriers to register and to exercise their right to vote, plain and simple,” she said, adding: “We’ve been dialing things back gradually in Georgia, and it’s not who we are as a state.”

The five-member State Election Board has been a source of political turmoil for years, particularly since a three-member conservative majority pushed controversial changes to voting rules ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Trump embraced the trio at an Atlanta rally that year, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.” The board has remained deeply divided since, and its majority has continued to scrutinize the 2020 election and press for tighter voting rules.

She’s conflicted about the death penalty, but wouldn’t rule it out

Bottoms said she has long wrestled with the death penalty, torn between concerns that it is disproportionately applied to Black defendants and her belief that some crimes are so heinous that capital punishment may be warranted.

“I personally have very mixed emotions about it, but I do know there are some crimes that are so horrific that I can understand why that penalty may be deemed appropriate,” she said. “But I am deeply conflicted just because it seems to be unfairly applied racially.”

Georgia once had one of the nation’s busiest death rows, but the state hasn’t carried out an execution since March 2024, and some local prosecutors have moved away from seeking the death penalty.

A recent botched execution in Tennessee has focused fresh scrutiny on capital punishment.

A warning to Republicans: ‘Read the room’

Even if Bottoms wins, Gov. Brian Kemp could summon Republicans back to the Capitol after the election to redraw political districts to help the GOP, curb the powers of a newly elected governor and clip the wings of other Democratic victors.

That’s not just a theoretical prospect. Kemp already convened a special session earlier this year to redraw political boundaries for 2028, though legislative leaders nixed the debate until after the November election.

For now, Bottoms said, she was heeding advice from her grandmother: “You don’t worry until you have to.”

But she also offered Republicans a warning, saying she hopes they would be able to “read the room and see this state is not interested in extremes.”

“This state has been successful because we’ve been very moderate and very measured, usually, in how we approach government and how we approach leadership,” she said. “But if that does happen, we’ll deal with it accordingly.”

A defense of her Atlanta record, but also second thoughts

Jackson and his allies have made Bottoms’ tenure as mayor a centerpiece of their campaign, accusing her of letting Atlanta “burn” during the violence and unrest that rocked the city in 2020 and 2021.

Bottoms accused him of using his “billions to try and rewrite history” with an ad campaign depicting her as an absentee mayor during the protests for racial justice.

“Atlanta didn’t burn. A police car, a Wendy’s, and a dumpster burned. That’s very different than an entire city burning.”

She pointed to pay hikes for police and firefighters on her watch, along with increased public safety spending as examples of the city’s progress in the fight against crime.

But Bottoms also acknowledged she’s had second thoughts about one of the most wrenching episodes of her tenure: the turmoil surrounding the Wendy’s in Southwest Atlanta where city police fatally shot Rayshard Brooks.

After the restaurant was torched, the site became a hub of violent demonstrations. Within weeks, 8-year-old Secoriea Turner was fatally shot by a gunman who was part of an unruly mob that occupied the site.

Bottoms said she still wonders whether she should have pushed harder to dismantle the site.

“I do wonder if we had torn the Wendy’s down,” she said, adding: “Hindsight is 20-20. We’ll never know the answer to that, but that is something I’ve reflected on.”

She also sought to distance herself from then-Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s decision to prosecute the officers involved in Brooks’ death.

“I was not in favor of that,” she said, adding that she told Howard so at the time. “But Paul was a duly elected public official and he alone made the decision to move forward with the prosecution of those officers. But that was not something that I advocated for.”

Charges against the two officers were ultimately dropped.

A ‘balance’ over gun restrictions

Bottoms said Georgia can impose tougher gun safeguards after GOP-backed expansions without infringing on the right to bear arms.

She endorsed strengthening red-flag laws, which allow courts to temporarily restrict gun access for people deemed a danger to themselves or others, and closing the “gun show loophole” that allows speedier firearm purchases.

Bottoms, whose nephew was killed by gunfire in 2014, said her experience with gun violence has shaped her views.

“I am very respectful and mindful of people’s Second Amendment rights and the right to bear arms. We’re not trying to infringe upon that at all,” she said.

“You can balance both. We can protect people’s Second Amendment rights. We can be mindful of the Constitution, but we can also push for responsible gun ownership and gun access.”

She stands by her support for Biden

Bottoms was one of President Joe Biden’s closest Georgia allies and later served as a senior adviser in his administration. But when asked directly whether Biden should have sought a second term in 2024, she didn’t give a yes-or-no answer.