Rick Jackson raises $13 million in outside money for Georgia governor bid
Rick Jackson won the Republican nomination for governor after pouring more than $108 million of his own fortune into his campaign. So far in the general election, he’s taking a different tack.
Campaign finance records released late Friday show no new loans or cash infusions from Jackson. Instead, the billionaire healthcare executive received roughly $13 million in donations in his campaign accounts between June 11 and July 31.
Most of that came from a $10 million contribution from the Republican Governors Association. Jackson also held a series of fundraisers since winning the GOP runoff in June, something he avoided during the primary.
That haul far outpaced Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, who tallied more than $5.6 million over a similar period. She was bolstered by more than $1.6 million from the Democratic Governors Association.
Bottoms said she would report about $1.3 million cash on hand, though her campaign attributed technical issues with missing a midnight deadline for one of its accounts. Jackson had roughly $11 million across his accounts.
Jackson is still expected to dig deeper into his wallet to help cover a commitment to purchase $87 million in ads, a figure his campaign said could grow. And he has repeatedly said he is willing to “spend what it takes” to defeat Bottoms.
So far, the $102 million in ad reservations he’s booked this year makes Jackson the sixth-highest political advertiser nationwide, putting him in the same spending tier as Washington’s biggest super PACs, according to the AdImpact tracking firm.
Bottoms has repeatedly acknowledged she can’t match Jackson’s financial firepower, though she’s said she’s confident she will hold her own.
“There’s still a power of the megaphone. We’re going to do what we need to do with what we have, whatever that amount is,” Bottoms said at a recent event.
A changed landscape
The reports also highlight the growing role of leadership committees, fundraising vehicles created by a 2021 law that let a select group of political leaders and statewide nominees collect unlimited contributions.
Jackson couldn’t operate one during the primary. But his rival Burt Jones could because he was the sitting lieutenant governor.
Jackson was among several candidates who have challenged the law in court, arguing it gave incumbents an unfair fundraising advantage. A federal appeals court agreed with him.
Once Jackson won the GOP nomination, however, he promptly created one himself. He used that vehicle to receive the eight-figure infusion from the RGA about two weeks later.
Several other donors wrote the Republican six-figure checks, including $100,000 contributions from railroad magnate Ben Tarbutton; Evans General Contractors, an Alpharetta-based construction company; and Atlanta-based healthcare financing firm Curae Finance.
Bottoms has embraced the fundraising tool, too, collecting more than $3 million through her leadership committee since June.
Among her larger contributions: a $100,000 check from Atlanta-based Sycamore Management; $50,000 from Emory University film and media professor emeritus Matthew Bernstein; and $25,000 apiece from Education Reform Now PAC and EMILY’s List.