Tapped as one of President Joe Biden’s top surrogates this election cycle, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens darted around the city this week to spread the administration’s key talking points ahead of Thursday’s historic presidential debate.
The mayor spoke at a press conference with small business leaders, made an interview appearance on CNN, stopped by a labor breakfast and greeted Biden and the first lady when they arrived at Dobbins Air Base Reserve.
Biden has a history of calling on Atlanta’s leaders to prop his election bids. Former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was this week appointed as a senior adviser to the 2024 campaign and previously served as a senior advisor at the White House, too.
The 90-minute debate between Biden and Republican Donald J. Trump brought flocks of national media, campaign staff and political junkies to Atlanta. But despite the national scale of the debate, Dickens directed a poignant message to his constituents alone.
“I want Atlantans to remember,” he said on Tuesday.
“In Atlanta, we must show up to vote,” he said. “We understand that Georgia did a thing in 2020 when we — by some 11,000 votes — elected Biden, over Trump.”
“I want Georgians to have a real good memory of how we felt four years ago,” he continued. “I want Atlantans, our residents here, our small businesses to think back.”
Following Biden’s win in 2020, some residents in the Democratic stronghold toasted glasses of champagne toward the John Lewis mural downtown, while others celebrated in the streets over the city’s iconic rainbow crosswalks at 10th and Piedmont.
But with support for Biden waning after four years in office and election fatigue a concern for mobilization groups — particularly in swing states like Georgia — the city’s top leader is already urging residents to take to the polls in November.
“Four years is enough time for you to still be able to look back and say I remember the lies that we’re told, the deception, the broken promises, the hate, the vitriol,” Dickens said during a passionate response to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution question at a Biden campaign event.
“I want Atlantans to remember that and go to the polls like they’ve never gone before — that’s my message to Atlanta,” he said.
There’s reason for concern. An AJC poll released the same day as Dickens’ remarks shows Trump leads Biden 43% to 38%, just outside the margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Another 8% identified as undecided in the poll.
