Background and career
Mohammed Kasim Reed (born June 10, 1969) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 59th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia's state capital and largest city, from 2010 to 2018. A Democrat, Reed was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1998 to 2002 and represented the 35th District in the Georgia State Senate from 2003 to 2009. He served as campaign manager for Shirley Franklin's successful Atlanta mayoral campaign in 2001. After Franklin was term limited from the mayor's office, Reed successfully ran for the position in 2009. Inaugurated on January 4, 2010, Reed was elected to a second term in 2013. In 2014, Reed announced his marriage to Sarah-Elizabeth Langford; two months later, the mayor's office announced the birth of the couple's daughter. Divorce proceedings began in 2019. On June 10, 2021, Reed declared that he was seeking another term as Atlanta's mayor in the 2021 election. He placed third in the November election, failing to qualify for the runoff election.
Reed was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. His family moved to Fulton County, Georgia, when he was an infant. His family belonged to the United Methodist Church. His father had considered converting to Islam and named his son Mohammed Kasim, to the consternation of his minister grandfather. Reed graduated from Fulton County's Utoy Springs Elementary School and Westwood High School, now Westlake High School. According to a DNA analysis, he claims descent from the Igbo people of Nigeria.
Reed attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1991 with a degree in political science. Students took over the Howard administration building in 1989, protesting having Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater on the university's board of trustees, saying that he had contributed to "growing anti-black sentiment in America" through his management of President George H. W. Bush's campaign. Atwater resigned from the board. Reed disagreed with their action, saying there was nothing wrong with having the Republican Party try to win the votes of black students. He felt it would have been better if Atwater had met with the protesting students, as he might have learned more about their position. For instance, "[he] might have gained insight into a generation of students portrayed as destitute and in need of more federal support." Reed noted "that 85 percent of Howard's 12,000 students receive federal aid." An early entrepreneur, by 1989 Reed made $40,000 running a jewelry business which he started at age sixteen. In 1990 he was invited to comment on the Persian Gulf War military buildup on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Also, in November of that year he was featured in Black Enterprise. While at college, Reed interned for Congressman Joseph Patrick Kennedy II. During his internship he learned about a federal dollar-for-dollar matching grant program. In his senior year and as the undergraduate trustee on the university's board of trustees, he instituted a $15-per-semester student fee increase to be matched by the federal grant, with monies to be earmarked for the university's endowment. The fees were expected to total nearly $300,000 per semester. The estimate was conservative in the sense that it only assumes the fees from slightly more than 75% of the 12,000 students. The four-year totals would approach a $2.4 million addition to the endowment. Reed earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1991. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law in 1995. In 2002 Reed was appointed as the youngest general trustee to serve on Howard's board of trustees and continues to serve on that board.
After graduation from law school Reed joined the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, and later became a partner at Holland & Knight LLP, both law firms being international firms with offices in Atlanta.
Henrietta Canty was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives for the 52nd district during 1975–80 and 1990–98, resigning in 1998 to run for Georgia State Insurance Commissioner. Seven candidates vied for her seat in the July 21, 1998 Democratic primary election. Reed was the leading vote-getter with 36.6% of the vote, finishing well ahead of community leaders Horace Mann Bond and Eric V. Thomas, the second and third-place finishers, respectively. This resulted in a head-to-head August 11 run-off election, which Reed won with 60.6% of the vote, against the second-place finisher, Horace Mann Bond II, who had received 19.1% of the vote in July. Reed ran unopposed in the November 3 general election and won the Assembly seat. Reed ran a re-election campaign in 2000, when he was challenged by Clarence Canty, the son of Henrietta Canty. Reed won the July 18, 2000, Democratic primary by a large margin, with 77.0% of the vote, winning by a 12.7% margin. In the November 7, 2000, general election he ran unopposed. In the House of Representatives, he represented a predominately African-American constituency in south Atlanta. Reed served as a member of the House Judiciary, Education, and Congressional and Legislative Reapportionment Committees. While in office, in 2001 Reed served as the campaign manager for Shirley Franklin's successful election campaign to become the 58th mayor of Atlanta. As a campaign manager in an election occurring in the shadow of the September 11 attacks, he surveyed potential voters' perceptions of the propriety of the campaign's advertising broadcasts. At the time certain ads were thought to focus on sensitive topics. After winning the election, Franklin chose Reed as one of two co-chairs on her transition team. In this role he was charged with identifying and reviewing candidates for cabinet-level positions. For the 2000 election, House District 52 had been entirely contained in Fulton County. After the decennary redistricting, the 52nd district was entirely within DeKalb County for the November 5, 2002, election which was won by Fran Millar.
In 2000 the 35th Georgia State Senate District was entirely contained in Fulton County, and State Senator Donzella James was an uncontested Democrat in the November 7 general election. In 2002 four-term incumbent senator James vacated the seat and contested David Scott and other contenders for the Georgia's 13th congressional district, which was created after the 2000 census when Georgia added two new congressional districts. When Reed first ran for election in the 35 state senate district in the 2002 Democratic primary, it included 19 precincts in Douglas County, Georgia, and 333 in Fulton County. The district includes the southern portion of Fulton County (Atlanta, Alpharetta, College Park, East Point, Fairburn, Hapeville, Mountain Park, Palmetto, Roswell, Sandy Springs, and Union City) and the northeast portion of Douglas County (Douglasville, and Lithia Springs). Reed won the district's five-way primary on August 20, 2002, with 65.8% of the vote, and then he was uncontested in the November 5, 2002 general election. In 2004 James challenged Reed for the seat she had held before him, but he won the July 20, 2004 Democratic primary election by a 58.8%–41.2% margin. He ran unopposed in the November 2, 2004 general election, and he also ran unopposed in his 2006 and 2008 primary and general elections. In January 2006, Reed introduced a bill to authorize scholastic teaching of the textbook The Bible and Its Influence by the non-partisan, ecumenical Bible Literacy Project. The bible curriculum bill, which came a few years after Democrats opposed Republican attempts to promote teaching a translation of the scriptures, was an attempt to preempt a Republican attempt to display the Ten Commandments in schools. Faith is an area where Georgia Democrats differ from the national party. The bill passed in the State Senate by a 50–1 margin on February 3, and it eventually became law. Reed's committee assignments were the following: Senate Judiciary Committee, Special Judiciary Committee, Ethics Committee, Transportation Committee and the State and Local Government Operations Committee. He also serves as vice-chairman of the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus. He has also served the Georgia Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as its chairman. In addition, he was a partner at Holland & Knight LLP. Previously, he worked in the music industry for Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
