Biden makes first endorsement of 2026 midterm cycle
Former President Biden dropped his first endorsement of the 2026 midterm cycle Friday morning, backing former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the Georgia governor’s race .
Bottoms made a surprise decision not to run for reelection as mayor in 2021 and then joined the Biden administration as a special adviser .
“As mayor of Atlanta, Keisha faced every challenge a leader could face, and then some — a global pandemic, a major cyberattack on the city system, economic uncertainty that tested every community across Georgia,” Biden said in a video released Friday. “She handled the law with steady leadership.”
“And then she came to the White House, served as a senior adviser. And I’ll tell you, those same colleagues that made her a great mayor made her invaluable to our administration. Smart, focused, gets things done. Georgia, she’s ready. She’s been ready,” he added. “Let’s get this thing done.”
Bottoms maintains a sizable lead over the Democratic field but remains well below the 50 percent threshold that would allow her to avoid a runoff.
The other top contenders are former state Labor Commissioner and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond; former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a former Republican who broke with the party after the 2020 election; and former state Sen. Jason Esteves.
Bottoms had 32 percent of the vote, compared with between 10 percent and 15 percent for the other three, in a 20/20 Insight poll taken at the end of March.
The winner on the Democratic side is likely to face either businessman Rick Jackson or Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the President Trump-backed candidate, coming out of the Republican primary. The two are in a near dead-heat , according to an Atlanta Journal Constitution poll released this week.
Biden has made fairly regular public appearances since leaving office in January 2025.
He took some of his most direct shots at Trump during a speech in February, shortly after the current president’s State of the Union address to Congress.
“By the way, did you see Trump give the State of Union?” Biden asked, which was met with boos from attendees at party thrown by South Carolina Democrats.
“Is he still talking? I don’t know. But folks, it’s unbelievable. The guy talks for almost two hours, but never mentions the anniversary of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin invading Ukraine. Never once.”
Biden also said the U.S. is in the midst of “dark days,” facing threats that are “amplified in the ways we have never seen before.”
“Our children are watching, and I’m worried about what they are hearing, so we have to be unapologetic for fighting for our country,” he said.
Biden’s approval rating had reached lows in the mid-30s by the time he left office, as questions about his age and fitness for office pushed him out of his run for reelection.
Trump’s approval rating has already reached similar lows in his second term, as Americans grow increasingly frustrated with high gas prices and uncertainty about the war in Iran.
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