Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac Dover. You think as long as Donald Trump's president, black women are going to turn out in these surging numbers for Democrats?

Absolutely. And I think that will continue to grow because I think black women are realizing the power of their vote and of their influence. And I'm hoping that not only will we turn out, but we will continue to seek to lead.

Today's guest, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the new mayor of Atlanta.

I know this is a podcast, but let me start by asking a pulpit visual.

Do a search for Atlanta mayoral runoff map, something like that.

What will come up from last December

when Bottoms won is a pretty stark picture of the city divided into two colors, almost exactly

north to south. She won in the southern part of the city, traditionally more black part.

The other candidate won overwhelmingly in the more affluent, more white part of the city.

Bottoms won by 821 votes, barely, against a woman who was running as an independent, but had a lot of ties to Republicans in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

So when I caught up with Mayor Bottoms when she was in town for the conference of

mayor's winter meeting a few weeks ago, I wanted to talk about that.

The microcosm of progressives who didn't get their preferred candidates sitting on their

hands, not turning out to vote.

And meanwhile, a voters who didn't feel she was bold enough in her own proposals to get people to vote for her.

And that's part of it.

But I also want to talk about a topic that's coming to define politics right now because of how much it's defining democratic campaigns.

The power of black women.

I get a lot more into this topic in the article that's up on the website right now, so please check that out, what it looks like when Tom Perez, the DNC chair, calls black women the backbone of the party.

But what black women in Georgia and beyond are looking for in order to keep turning out, and how that could shift what elections look like in the South and for presidential races for years to come if Democrats can

make Georgia a swing state. There's also getting to know a woman who's now one of the top

black female elected leaders in the country. It hasn't ever before gotten into as much detail

...