During the 2020 Presidential Election cycle, the state of Georgia was considered a narrative tipping point representing the microcosm of ever-shifting politics of the nation after four years of the Trump administration.
Atlanta’s current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has a close relationship with the current Biden Administration and was nominated by the President for a vice-chair position in the Democratic National Committee (DNC), will not be running for re-election in the upcoming mayoral election in November.
The culmination of Mayor Bottoms stepping down and the tumultuous political climate of Georgia has opened the door for Democrat party-affiliated candidates wanting to capitalize off the apparent “blue wave” and persuade Atlanta’s constituents towards their campaigns.
One such hopeful is Felicia Moore, the current President of the Atlanta City Council, who has served in elected office for the last two decades as a City Council member for District 9.
Council President Moore is running a grassroots campaign focused on support from native Atlantans by engaging with potential constituents at neighborhood meetings, phone banking, and her social media campaign, “#HiFelicia.”
Identifying as a Democrat, Council President Moore has created a comprehensive platform that primarily focuses on crime and city services; she hopes to make neighborhoods safer by providing additional police presence in the city, whilst re-configuring the recruitment and training of officers to eradicate racial bias from policing.
The Moore Campaign is also focused on expanding city services by collaborating with front-line employees and outlining the foundational problems within each department in City Hall, especially in terms of fiscal guardrails to avoid over-spending.
Specifically, Council President Moore has created a plan for her first 100 days in office that thoroughly addresses the campaign’s agenda to ensure that her constituents are being delivered the promises made during the campaign. In regards to crime, she wants to rehire retired officers on a contractual basis, along with refocusing policing attention to major crimes and developing a permanent crisis management first responder unit consisting of unarmed social workers who will tackle behavioral health incidents.
The Moore campaign is conscious of the new wave of civil rights movements that emerged in response to George Floyd’s death and wants to alter officer training to include situation de-escalation tactics and community policing activity that builds community trust in policing interactions.
Metro-Atlanta consists of a large homeless population, so Council President Moore will also be prioritizing housing as one of her key issues during the first 100 days of her mayoral term. She wants to utilize the Atlanta Housing Authority to rehouse evicted Atlantans, prioritizing seniors and households below the 50% mean income level. In terms of the vast homeless population, the administration will focus on identifying City of Atlanta property to build additional transitional shelters for women, low/no-barrier housing for families, and permanent housing that will be situated around transportation hubs for supporting service industry and city employees.
When asked about her vision for Atlanta during her term and beyond, Council President Moore emphasized that she wants, “Atlanta to be a model for the nation on city service delivery, affordability, and equity, so that we can be a beacon for people who want a place to call home, raise their families, and retire.”
She hopes to restore public trust in the efficacy of city-level government by highlighting the problems within each department in City Hall and equipping each subgroup with the pertinent resources necessary to deliver city services efficiently.
A large part of establishing trust for the Moore Campaign in instilling a culture of transparency and accountability within City Hall in order to ensure that high standards of performance are met by every front-line worker and department.
Part of this narrative of delivering excellence are Georgia Tech students. Council President Moore has committed to prioritizing problems like student debt and college affordability to build an inclusive campaign for potential Tech constituents. She has pledged to use her bully pulpit to advocate for the students of Georgia Tech at the state and national level and promised, “You represent the future of our community and our nation. Whatever I can do as your next Mayor to help you progress, I will do it.”