Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will join the White House staff as director of the Office of Public Engagement, a White House official announced.
Bottoms will replace Cedric Richmond, one of two dozen Black staffers who have left the White House in recent months.
Elected in 2017, Bottoms served one term as mayor of Atlanta. She was reportedly advised not to run for reelection because she would lose due to the post-pandemic crime problem in Atlanta.
Bottoms, 52, had hopes of being chosen as Biden’s running mate in 2020, but she was passed over for Kamala Harris who was preferred by former President Barack Obama.
Her new job as advisor to the President comes at a time when her boss, Joe Biden, set a record for the lowest approval ratings of all U.S. Presidents since Gallup started tracking approval ratings in 1945.
According to Gallup, just 41% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing.
Biden is reportedly furious at his falling approval ratings. During a speech at a union convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Biden defended his economic plans amid inflation fears and increasing gas prices.
“I don’t want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending, we’re changing people’s lives,” he told reporters.
According to Axios, Bottoms has committed to working with the Biden administration at least through the November midterm elections.
The White House is seeking to improve its relations with the Black community after a new poll shows the President is losing Black voter support.
