*Most people probably didn’t realize that Keisha Lance Bottom‘s job with the Biden Administration was only temporary. Today (02-27-23) President Biden announced that she is leaving and will be replaced by Steven Benjamin
“It’s time for me to get back home, get back to my family, and focus on the future,” Bottoms said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Steven Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, S.C., will replace Bottoms as a senior adviser and Director of the Office of Public Engagement. He’ll begin in April.
In the president’s announcement from the White House, he noted that Bottoms helped keep equity at the heart of his political agenda. The office she presided over served as the connective tissue between his office and everyday Americans who struggle to be heard in Washington.
“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.”
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Bottoms, who served as mayor from 2018 through 2021, joined the Biden administration last summer to replace Cedric Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman who was Biden’s first Office of Public Engagement director as well as a close adviser.
“I was proud to bring a different voice and a different face to the White House: A voice from the South, an African-American woman in this White House. It was extraordinary,” Bottoms said.
She added: “Sitting across from the president in the Oval Office, he knew that whatever my response was, I was speaking for so many people.”
And if you’re wondering, yes, Bottoms very much intends to stay in the public policy arena.
And with that in mind, the AJC asked if she would seek office again, perhaps in 2026 when the governorship and other statewide jobs are on the ballot.
“Never say never. I said that when I left the mayor’s office. Stay tuned,” Bottoms coyly answered
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