Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, the first major candidate to announce plans to run for governor, added another $1.25 million to his campaign haul as he tries to leverage his early announcement before other GOP rivals enter the race.
Carr’s campaign told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it collected the contributions from 900 donors between April and June, after banking more than $2.2 million during his first few weeks of campaigning last year.
His campaign said 97% of the donations were in state. It didn’t immediately report how much cash it had on hand. His campaign hadn’t filed an official report with the state Ethics Commission by Monday. Reports are due later this week.
Carr stunned insiders by entering the race for governor in mid-November, launching one of the earliest bids for the state’s top job in modern Georgia history.
He had reason to get an early jump. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is expected to enter within weeks, and Jones has an edge that Carr can’t match: A political fundraising tool that allows wealthy donors and corporations to contribute unlimited amounts of money.
And other big-name Republicans could enter the race. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome have both recently told the AJC they are considering a bid.
Carr has also used his head start on the campaign trail to lean into an electability message not often heard in GOP primaries, contending that he’s the candidate who can unite President Donald Trump’s base with the more mainstream politics of Gov. Brian Kemp.
“There is one candidate in this race that can beat every Democrat that’s being talked about out there, and that’s me,” he said at a recent campaign event. “There’s one person that can win the primary, and there’s one person that can win the general.”
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Jones, meanwhile, has tried to build on the $2.5 million he’s collected in his leadership committee — a financial vehicle that’s transformed Georgia politics since it was enacted in 2021.
The Republican-backed law allows the governor and lieutenant governor and legislative leaders from both parties to raise unlimited funds, even during the legislative session. But it excludes other statewide officials — including the attorney general.
That means Carr and other candidates for Georgia’s top job are capped at maximum individual donations of $8,400 for the May 2026 primary, unless he can successfully challenge the law in court.
Whatever Republican emerges will likely face a well-financed rival, as both the top Democratic contenders say they’ll report seven-figure hauls.
State Sen. Jason Esteves said he collected more than $1.1 million over roughly two months, a strong showing he hopes proves to state and national donors he’s the most viable Democrat in the race.
And former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, perhaps the best-known Democrat in the race, amassed about $900,000 and lent herself another $200,000 to match Esteves’ total.
That far outpaces Democratic candidates during the 2018 campaign, the last wide-open race for Georgia governor. At this stage in that race, Stacey Abrams had raised roughly $540,000 and her Democratic rival Stacey Evans had collected about $415,000.
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