The 59th Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, filed paperwork Tuesday night to run for Mayor of Atlanta. Reed joins Atlanta City Councilman Antonio Brown, Atlanta attorney Sharon Gay, and Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, and Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens who have all filed paperwork to join the race.
“I felt like there are things happening in Atlanta that I’d never seen in my life, and I’ve been here all my life. So that’s what caused me to start talking about it,” Reed said in a WSB-TV interview.
The filing allows Reed to begin formally begin accepting donations ahead of his birthday bash Thursday night, which will be $1,000 per guest.
Rumors on social media and in Atlanta’s political circles have run rampant that former Mayor Kasim Reed is considering running again for his old post. He said in a past interview on KISS 104.1 FM radio that he was not planning to run. However, it is unclear if current Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms’s decision to stand down at the end of her first term has changed Reed’s outlook.
Reed did admit to WSB-TV’s Dave Huddleston that recent events in Atlanta, changed his perspective, notably, the rise in crime in Atlanta throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic caused him to contemplate running for Mayor for the third time.
“I do know how to fix crime, and I do know I could turn our crime environment around in 180 days, and I know that I’ve done it before,” Reed said.
