After months of debates, campaign ads, meet and greets, and canvassing, Atlanta is close to naming a new mayor and potentially welcoming some new and familiar faces to the City Council and Board of Education.

Unfortunately, some of those faces will not include the dozen or so Black LGBTQ identified candidates who launched campaigns for the council, school board, and the mayor’s office.

Of the slate of Black LGBTQ candidates, Keisha Waites is the only candidate with a chance of possibly winning their campaign. A native of Atlanta and a former state legislator, Waites is in a runoff against Jacqueline “Jacki” Labat for the Council’s Post 3 At-Large seat. Labat’s husband, Patrick Labat, is Fulton County Sheriff.

Waites’ platform is centered on four issues: public safety, restoring public trust, regional transportation, and affordable housing.

Keisha Waites wants to make one thing clear. “I am not a politician,” she told The Reckoning. “I am a problem solver and a public servant.”

A native of Atlanta and a former state legislator, Waites is vying to replace Andre Dickens, one of nearly a dozen candidates in Atlanta’s mayoral race, on the Atlanta City Council. She is one of five candidates running for the council’s post-3 at-large seat. It is a crowded, and in some respects, an impressive field of candidates that include familiar names like Jacki Labat, as well as Ralph Long, Sherry B. Williams, and Jodi Merriday. But of all the candidates in her race, Waites believes she is the one with the best chance of helping to move the city forward.