Mayor says no to post on Cabinet

Atlantan’s adviser tells of Biden offer

ATLANTA — President-elect Joe Biden offered Atlanta’s mayor a position in his Cabinet but she did not accept, according to a statement Saturday from her senior adviser.

“Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was honored to have been offered a role in the Cabinet, which she respectfully declined,” Rashad Taylor said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Taylor declined to say what position was offered.

“The mayor’s focus remains on the people of Atlanta and the great state of Georgia,” Taylor said. “Out of respect for the process, and the other candidates under consideration, no additional comment will be forthcoming on this matter at this time.”

On Friday, there was wide speculation that Bottoms, considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, had been offered the opportunity to be ambassador to the Bahamas, but turned it down.

However, “She was never offered an Ambassadorship,” Taylor said.

Several prominent Georgia Democrats have reported that Bottoms was in the running to lead the Small Business Administration, a Cabinet-level post.

Biden’s transition press office did not immediately respond to an email requesting confirmation of Taylor’s comments and what position she may have been offered.

Bottoms was an early and ardent supporter of Biden’s campaign, and speculation has swirled for months that she would join his administration.

No Georgia Democrat played a more prominent role promoting Biden’s campaign than Bottoms, 50, a Black woman and a first-term mayor who endorsed him in July, campaigned for him in Iowa and worked on his behalf in spin rooms after debates.

Her national profile rose with her response to unrest in her city over the summer. She was widely praised in May for her passionate and deeply personal plea for demonstrators in downtown Atlanta to go home after protests over racial injustice turned violent.

She also clashed with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp over whether she had the authority to mandate that masks be worn in Georgia’s largest city.

Biden’s campaign vetted Bottoms for vice president, a position for which she was often mentioned as a top contender, before the Democratic presidential candidate picked Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator from California and former presidential candidate.

After Bottoms was passed over for the spot on the ticket, she was also considered a top contender to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Biden officially ended any discussion about that position when Friday he chose U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, to be HUD secretary.

Bottoms has a year left in her mayoral term and has said she plans to run for reelection.

Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Deere and Greg Bluestein of Tribune News Service; by Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News; and by staff members of The Associated Press.