# Opinion: Gianno Caldwell Says Keisha Lance Bottoms Ran Atlanta Into the Ground and Georgia Should Pick Rick Jackson for Governor

In a Fox News column, a Chicago commentator points to Atlanta's 2020 and 2021 crime surge under the former mayor and backs the Republican nominee's public safety plan. It is commentary, and the endorsement is his.

- Section: [Opinion](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/opinion/)
- Published: 2026-10-29
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/opinion-gianno-caldwell-keisha-lance-bottoms-atlanta-crime-rick-jackson-georgia-governor-fox-news/

A Fox News columnist makes the case against a Democratic candidate for governor and for her Republican opponent. This is opinion, and the judgments are the author's.

The writer. Gianno Caldwell founded the Caldwell Institute for Public Safety after his brother Christian was murdered in Chicago.

The charge. He argues that Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta's mayor in 2020 and 2021, failed on public safety. He says police investigated 157 homicides in 2020, up from 99 the year before, the most in more than two decades, citing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He says CNN reported 282 shooting incidents by early July 2020, up 19%, and that the number of people shot by June 2021 was up another 38%. More than 200 officers left the police department in 2020, he writes. He faults Bottoms for blaming the pandemic, gun laws and Gov. Brian Kemp's reopening of bars and clubs, and notes Buckhead residents launched a movement to break away from the city.

The contrast. He backs Republican nominee Rick Jackson, who he says grew up in Atlanta's Techwood Homes, never met his father, went through foster care at 13 and later built Jackson Healthcare into a firm with more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

The plan. Caldwell says Jackson's public safety plan would add certified crime labs so evidence stops sitting on shelves, create a statewide law enforcement division focused on ending child sex trafficking, and give tax relief to officers and veterans.

His close. "Georgia doesn't need a governor who wants the title," he writes. "It needs one who is willing to put in the work."

This is opinion. Supporters of Bottoms would dispute his reading of her record and of what drove crime in those years. We have not checked the crime figures he cites.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News (opinion)](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gianno-caldwell-bottoms-ran-atlanta-ground-cant-let-her-do-it-georgia)