Columbus mayoral candidate Jaketra Bryant — what she says about top issues in election

Editor’s note: This is one of the Ledger-Enquirer’s profiles of candidates in the Columbus mayoral election. Early voting for the 2026 local nonpartisan election, which coincides with the Georgia primary, begins April 27, and election day is May 19.

Jaketra Bryant has a doctorate in leadership and runs a consulting practice that has trained city executives in Savannah and is contracted to train fire and rescue personnel in Indianapolis this spring. She is a mom, wife, educator and licensed professional counselor with over 15 years of experience.

Bryant moved to Columbus seven years ago from Birmingham to work as a military family life counselor in Fort Mitchell and later developed programming for elementary schools.

Motivations for civil service

Over the years, Bryant has sat with hundreds of clients as a licensed counselor, listening to stories of violation, unsafe workplaces and neighborhoods that grind them down. She would advise them to “say something,” but she realized that they rarely did.

Realizing that individual coping skills can only go so far against systemic barriers is what pushed her from the counseling room toward city hall.

She said Columbus doesn’t need more “political talk” and wants to cut through the noise by tackling real, everyday problems that residents face.

Her top issues:

• Mental health and community services.
• Equitable neighborhoods
• Crime reduction
• Literacy and ending the prison pipeline
• Landlord accountability
• Protecting seniors

‘Mental health is everything’

Asked what her top priorities for Columbus are, Bryant noted most of the city’s problems have to do with mental health.

“Mental health is everything,” she said. “High crime rates are mental health. High truancy is mental health. The fact that the neighborhoods are inequitable is mental health.”

Her three-part fix:

Bryat said she would start with gaps in the system.

• Train first responders in mental response protocol.
• Establish a 24-hour crisis hotline.
• Meet needs with services, not heavier police presence.

On crime reduction

Bryant is keen to apply a more “evidence-based” strategy when it comes to crime. She referenced Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, in which high-crime areas were identified and offered services like peer support, drug recovery classes and coaching.

Bryant’s approach to crime is rooted in her background as a counselor and leadership researcher, and she is skeptical of the strategies Columbus has leaned on.

High crime rates are downstream of unmet mental health needs, not the cause of them, Bryant said, and the goal is to get “the right person to the right place instead of criminalizing.” She believes “high policing never, ever works.”

Bryant thinks this could be more successful than an increased police presence, and she would build community relationships to understand what residents actually need.

On food security and equitable neighborhoods

“Every neighborhood deserves equal access to opportunity,” Bryant said. She hopes to push for more “farm-to-table” solutions like MercyMed Farm. “Every single community needs to have that,” she said.

Bryant called Columbus “a beautiful, beautiful area,” so she wants to see “more farming here instead of all the commercial buildings they keep putting up.”

As a member of the West Georgia Farmers Cooperative, Bryant would like to see the city lean into community land trusts, where residents share the profits of community grocery stores rather than all revenue flowing away from the neighborhood.

On landlord accountability

Roughly 80% of Columbus residents rent rather than own their home, Bryant said. Although the actual number is closer to 50%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the problems are still the same.

Safe housing is a basic human right, Bryant said. She runs an informal confidentiality portal, where renters describe conditions they are afraid to report to landlords for fear of eviction.

As mayor, Bryant said, she would push for a formal anti-retaliation ordinance and a private reporting portal, where tenants can document complaints anonymously to hold landlords to “some form of accountability.”

Clearing the air

Position on Christian nationalism

Christian naitonalism became an issue in the nonpartisan mayoral election when Columbus Councilor Joanne Cogle, who is running for mayor, cut ties with her campaign manager and a consulting firm after receiving complaints about their connection to Christian nationalism.

Bryant’s position: “Christian nationalism is really about excluding people, so my stance is really just the opposite of Christian nationalism.”

Underdog status:

She realizes she may be perceived as an underdog in the six-candidate race, but she wants voters to know:

• She acknowledges the perception gap.
• Her professional career is as long as the other candidates.
• She has experience training city employees ranking higher than a city manager.
• As a Black woman, she operates under a different standard. “I never get a moment to have a mess-up,” she says. “I always have to research 10 times harder.”

Campaign team

Her campaign team is assembled as a direct act of representation and is a diverse collection of differing ages, races, sexual orientations and religions, Bryant said.

“All the intersections are on purpose,” she said. “This actually represents what’s happening and who actually lives here.”

Lawsuit against a school

In 2021, Bryant sued Calvary Christian School for alleged discrimination against her son. In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld Judge Clay Land’s 2023 order granting summary judgment in favor of the school.

The appeals court’s opinion says, “The comments made by (her son’s) peers — that God hates Black people and gay people — are certainly offensive. But we view those comments through the prism of the circumstances in which they arose, and we conclude that they do not rise to the level of harassment sufficient to establish a hostile educational environment.”

Bryant’s claims:

• She was paying extra for a discovery school program with promised accommodations that were not delivered.
• When she escalated, she was told to withdraw him; she refused.
• She later learned other families with children who had disabilities, were LGBTQ or came from marginalized backgrounds had similar experiences at the school.
• She never got the trial she sought.
• Her son has since been diagnosed with language expressive disorder.

How to find her

• Website: drbryantforcolumbus.com
• Instagram: @drbryantforcolumbus
• LinkedIn profile