Tipsheet

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Has Growing Concerns. Here's Why.

Beth Baumann
Beth Baumann  |  January 05, 2021 9:45 PM

All eyes have been on Georgia as their runoff election takes place for the two Senate seats. The races are important because the control of the Senate hangs in the balance. It's why President Donald Trump, President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, and various other members of Congress campaigned in the Peach State. 

Early tabulations show Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the two Democrats, in the lead. It's not surprising. Democrats get the majority of their votes from early voting and absentee ballots. Republicans shine when it comes to Election Day totals. And it's why Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) is concerned. 

"There's been an excitement and an energy on the ground here that we've never seen in a runoff, a statewide runoff, anyway," Lance Bottoms told ABC News. "... People are paying attention. And the thing that's challenging for us is getting people to care about runoffs."

According to the mayor, the "Battleground Georgia" organization has been working diligently to get Georgians to turn out for the runoff election. The pro-Republican group focused solely on Georgians who didn't vote in November. 

"They've been very successful. With that early voting they were showing that 40,000 people that didn't turn out in November turned out," Lance Bottoms explained. 

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The one concern Lance Bottoms said she has is the lack of turn out in her precinct on Election Day. She did, however, say she was "encouraged" by the number of Georgians who voted during the early voting period.

The reason this runoff has generated so much enthusiasm and excitement from Georgians is because of the national attention the races have received. When other runoff elections don't have that sort of attention, they don't garner as much interest or participation. They're seen as "boring," the mayor said.