Andre Dickens wins second term as Atlanta mayor in landslide vote

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens slid into an easy win on Nov. 4, securing his second term in office through 2030. Major outlets called the race in his favor with over 86 percent of the vote during early Fulton County reporting. 

Dickens had faced off against three smaller candidates: Eddie Andrew Meredith, Kalema Jackson and Helmut Domagalski. It wasn’t a surprising win – of the last eight mayors, six have served at least two terms. 

He was first elected in 2021 and took office in 2022 amid mounting crime and threats that Buckhead would secede and form cityhood. In the years since, he’s championed a few major issues. 

Perhaps his most well-known promise is a plan to build or preserve 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030, though some have pushed for more units to be priced as “deeply affordable” according to the Area Media Income. The AMI for one person in the Metro Atlanta area is $67,500 – affordable rent can often start at $1,400 a month.

He promised to complete that goal if reelected, as well as to transition the city to 100 percent clean energy by 2035. 

Recently, Dickens has faced mounting federal pressure from the Trump administration. In July, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport lost $37.5 million in July for refusing to follow terms that ban “diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.” 

Dickens also announced a citywide pause on evictions and water shutoffs as SNAP funding lapsed, and threw his support behind the Atlanta Community Food Bank $5 million crisis plan to offset the loss of dollars. 

But Dickens has seen controversy, too. The mayor came under fire for his longstanding support of “Cop City,” the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center that drew long-term protests on the property and in city hall. He also faces issues with a fraught water infrastructure. 

Still, the mayor will move ahead into his second term with ambitious plans for downtown development, affordable housing and potential light and heavy rail. As he said during the qualifiers — ”I’m ready to keep working for you and this city, and we’ve got big plans to keep moving Atlanta forward.”