Sally Yates disappointed Georgia Democrats on Tuesday by "totally ruling out" a 2018 gubernatorial run.
Georgia Democrats attempted to push Yates, a former acting attorney general, into running for governor next year after her public profile skyrocketed in late January when President Trump fired her. Yates, who former President Obama previously appointed as deputy attorney general, was fired after telling Justice Department lawyers not to defend Trump's executive order temporarily barring citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States over terrorism concerns.
"I am totally ruling out the governor's race. I am not running for governor," Yates told the New Yorker in an interview published Tuesday.
"I recognize that I may have a voice that I didn't have before," Yates continued, adding that she intends to stay involved in public life. "And part of what I want to be able to do is to figure out how I can responsibly use that voice in a way to impact things that I think really matter. I just don't know what form that takes."
To many Trump critics, Yates, an Atlanta native, has become a symbol of opposition to the president. The former Justice Department official made headlines earlier this month when she testified to a Senate committee that she told the White House that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was susceptible to blackmail by Russia.
In mid-February, Yates received a standing ovation while sitting in the audience of a panel discussion on race in Atlanta featuring author Michael Eric Dyson, activist DeRay McKesson, and Yates' former boss, Eric Holder, who served as attorney general during the Obama administration.
According to the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, Holder yelled out "Holder/Yates: 2020!" during the panel. Someone in the audience yelled back, "Yates/Holder!"
Democratic operative Seth C. Clark, who worked on Michelle Nunn's losing 2014 Senate campaign, told Politico in February that Democrats in Georgia were excited at the prospect of Yates entering politics in the state.
"Folks are talking about it a good bit down here," he said. "The buzz around here is she is a great candidate that can really make a case to get to the heart of Georgia Democrat's problem with moderate rural white voters."
State Sen. Elena Parent of Atlanta called Yates a "hometown hero" and "a symbol of the anti-Trump resistance."
Tharon Johnson, the national southern regional director for former President Obama's 2012 campaign and a former adviser to Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed, agreed.
"I don't think you can think of any possible candidates in Georgia and not mention Sally Yates' name right now," Johnson said.
Yates ended rumors of a potential gubernatorial run in 2018, but her profile appears to be rising as she begins speaking more to the press about her brief stint in government dealing with the Trump administration.