Republican Rick Jackson has put more than $200 million of his own fortune into Georgia’s race for governor, a record for the state. Two days before the vote, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s latest poll has him at 46% and Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms at 45%, inside the margin of error.
If Bottoms wins Tuesday, she becomes the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. Only three Black people have ever been elected governor of any state: Douglas Wilder in Virginia, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts and Wes Moore in Maryland. The Georgia seat is open.
The same AJC poll found 88% of Black voters backing Bottoms and 66% of white voters backing Jackson. That split is why both campaigns have spent the last week on turnout. Black voters made up more than 36% of the ballots cast on the first day of early voting in Georgia.
Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, has raised $23.2 million since the beginning of August, according to the AJC. Jackson, a billionaire health care executive who beat Burt Jones in the Republican runoff, has outspent her by a wide margin.
Former President Barack Obama went to Clayton County last week to rally for Bottoms and Sen. Jon Ossoff. The county south of Atlanta is majority Black, and the event was held at the Arena at Southlake in Morrow. “I don’t have to tell you how tough things are out there,” Obama told the crowd. “You’re living it.”
Ossoff has held a polling lead over Republican Mike Collins in the Senate race. The governor’s race has not moved that way. Jackson edged ahead in a September poll, and the two have been tied or close since.
About 2.2 million Georgians had voted early as of Wednesday. Those ballots are already in, so what remains is Election Day itself on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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