As the Georgia gubernatorial race winds down, Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms received major donations from two billionaires who hope the former Atlanta mayor ascends to the Governor’s mansion.
On Tuesday (Oct. 20), POLITICO reported that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was sending $1 million to her campaign as part of an effort to boost races involving Black and Hispanic candidates. The donation from Pritzker to a PAC representing Bottom is the second from a notable billionaire in as many days. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also donated $1 million to her campaign, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The influx of cash arrives at a critical time for Bottoms as she faces off against billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson. Jackson has reportedly spent nearly $120 million of his own money on the race and on his primary against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and has a five-to-one spending edge over Bottoms, who has raised more than $10 million for her campaign.
The race is viewed as a toss-up, according to the AJC.
“Our campaign appreciates the investment from Governor Pritzker,” Bottoms campaign spokesperson TaNisha Cameron said in a statement. “This is a tied race with momentum at our back, and voters are responding strongly to Keisha’s message — despite the more than $200 million that Rick Jackson has spent in this campaign. We’re well positioned to close this campaign out and win the Governor’s office for Democrats for the first time in 28 years.”
Despite Jackson’s massive spending for his own race, it isn’t yielding results for the other top race in the state. GOP Rep. Mike Collins faces an uphill battle against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, to the point that Democratic and Republican super PACs are pulling money and resources from the state to focus on more competitive races.
Bloomberg has pledged more than $80 million to Democrats nationwide, while the Democratic Governors Association has pledged $10 million to Bottoms’ campaign as the DGA has ramped up spending in several swing states, ranging from Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and more.
“We also believe our candidates in each of these states can win. That’s why the DGA is aggressively going on offense,” DGA Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper wrote in an internal memo. The $10 million donation makes the DGA the former Atlanta mayor’s largest donor ahead of the November 3 election.
