Ex-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announces plans to step down from White House position
White House Public Engagement Advisor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks a press briefing at the White House on January 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has announced that she is leaving her position at the White House after more than half a year working in the Biden Administration.
In a tweet sent Monday, Bottoms announced that she will soon step down as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, calling her time an "extraordinary season."
The former Atlanta mayor did not run for re-election in 2021. While originally she was hired at CNN to be a political commentator, she announced that she would be joining the Biden Administration in June.
On Instagram, Bottoms said that she had not planned to join the White House but had agreed to what she thought was a short-term assignment that turned out to have her staying much longer/
"It has been a privilege to work alongside @potus, @vp, and an extraordinary team in making a difference. I am grateful for the sacrifice my family has made and for the opportunity to represent all of who we are and all our ancestors believed we could be," she wrote.
In a statement, Biden said that Bottoms served "as the connective tissue between our Administration and everyday Americans who may not have a voice to reach Washington otherwise."
"I have leaned on Keisha as a close advisor with exceptional instincts, and I am grateful to her for serving our nation with honor and integrity," Biden said, "I wish her the best as she returns home to Atlanta to be with her family."
Bottoms will be succeeded in the role by Stephen Benjamin, the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina and former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.