Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is headlining a high-dollar fundraiser this month for Republican businessman Clay Tippins' campaign for governor.

The ex-chairman of the Republican National Committee will head to metro Atlanta on March 27 to endorse Tippins and headline the event. Tickets start at $1,000 a couple; top billing as a chair of the fundraiser will run you $20,000.

Barbour, who is now a lobbyist, is a longtime mainstay of the fundraising circuit and now one of Tippins’ highest-profile supporters.

The first-time candidate is aiming for a spot in a possible July runoff against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the GOP frontrunner.

Three other candidates are also aiming for that slot in the May primary: Former state Sen. Hunter Hill, Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sen. Michael Williams.

More: A wild-card contender wages an unconventional fight for governor

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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