By Greg Bluestein @ AJC.com, 1 hr. ago

DeKalb County chief executive Michael Thurmond will endorse Mike Bloomberg at a rally on Friday, giving the former New York mayor’s presidential bid a boost from one of the state’s most prominent African-American officials. 

Thurmond is set to announce his support at a noon “Mike for Black America” rally at Georgia Piedmont Technical College, where he will be joined by former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.  Bloomberg’s Georgia operation has aggressively courted Thurmond, a political pragmatist who is one of the more influential Georgia Democrats. 

he 67-year-old was the first African-American in modern Georgia history to win a statewide election without first being appointed to an office – as state labor commissioner in 1998. He announced earlier Thursday he would seek another term as the top elected official in DeKalb, which has more Democratic voters than any county in the state. [....]