Keisha Lance Bottoms is getting a late infusion of cash from two of the Democratic Party's deepest-pocketed donors, with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg each directing at least $1 million to her campaign for Georgia governor. The money arrives as Bottoms tries to close a massive financial gap against Republican nominee Rick Jackson with the Nov. 3 election just two weeks away.
Pritzker, a billionaire and potential 2028 presidential contender, is putting $1 million toward Bottoms' bid, with the funds headed to her leadership fund, which can accept unlimited contributions, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bloomberg, meanwhile, is steering her way at least $1 million of his $80 million late push to help Democrats nationwide, the newspaper reports. The AJC frames the donations as part of a broader effort by Bottoms to blunt Jackson's massive spending edge as the race enters its final stretch.
A Spending Gap Few Democrats Have Faced
The scale of that edge is hard to overstate. Jackson, a billionaire health care executive and political newcomer, has spent nearly $200 million since entering the Georgia governor's race earlier this year, according to Politico. His campaign had also disclosed an $87 million television and digital ad buy earlier in the general election, the largest of the race at the time, per Atlanta News First. As of the week before the candidates' lone televised debate, Jackson was outspending Bottoms by a seven-to-one margin, NBC News reported.
Bottoms, the Democratic nominee and former Atlanta mayor, is vying with Jackson to replace term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp. She dominated a crowded Democratic primary over the summer, winning more than 56% of the vote against six other candidates, according to WABE. The two candidates met only once on a debate stage, facing off on Atlanta News First/WANF in early October, the station notes.
Polls Show a Razor-Thin Race
Just how close the contest has become depends on which measure you look at. A poll published Oct. 20 found Jackson leading Bottoms by 1.6 percentage points in an initial ballot test, with 4.5% of likely voters still undecided, according to WJCL. That gap fell well within the poll's 3.8-point margin of error, making the race a statistical tie, the station reported. The same survey found Bottoms leading among women 50% to 44%, while Jackson held a larger edge among men, 54% to 43%, and Bottoms pulled 82% support among Black voters compared with 10% for Jackson.
Notably, suburban voters in that poll backed Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff by 13 points in the concurrent Senate race but favored Jackson by 3 points for governor, a split WJCL highlighted as evidence the two contests are not moving in lockstep. A separate forecast from Decision Desk HQ, by contrast, showed Bottoms ahead of Jackson, 55% to 45%, as of Oct. 18, according to The Hill. With early voting already underway and the candidates separated by less than 2 points in the WJCL poll, even a modest shift among undecided voters could decide who becomes Georgia's next governor.
Why National Democrats Are Watching Georgia
The stakes extend beyond the governor's mansion. Georgia Republicans are worried that control of the state General Assembly and other open statewide races could be swept up in a larger Democratic wave, Politico reports, and some in the party fret that President Donald Trump's repeated visits to the state could make the political environment worse for GOP candidates. Politico's reporting also points to Rep. Mike Collins struggling to close the gap against a well-funded Ossoff in the concurrent Senate race.
A win by Bottoms would hand Democrats the Georgia governorship for the first time since 1998, a milestone WABE's reporting underscores as part of what makes the Nov. 3 election historic regardless of how close the finish turns out to be.
