David Perdue recently put $500,000 of his personal wealth into his campaign to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp in the GOP primary.
But he’s not the only candidate in Georgia getting a big boost from his own pockets to compete with his rivals. So far, the biggest self-funders this cycle are Republicans, but past Georgia Democrats have pumped plenty of cash into their own campaigns, too.
Here are a few who caught out eyes:
* State Sen. Burt Jones may be the biggest self-funder, pumping more than $2 million into his own campaign for lieutenant governor. That’s compared to $17,000 that Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller has put into his race for LG;
* Sixth District Republican Jake Evans has dropped $700,000 of his own money into his race before reported raising $1.56 million total;
* Another 6th District Republican, Dr. Rich McCormick, has put $400,000 into the race, where his total raised is $2.56 million;
* Over in the 10th Congressional District, trucking executive Mike Collins reports raising about $1.1 million, of which $531,000 is coming from his own pocket.
Deep pockets tend to make the biggest impact for first-time candidates and in smaller races, which don’t attract as much funding from outside groups and out-of-state interests.
In 2020, two of the biggest self funders got through crowded primaries thanks, in part, to being able to boost their own coffers.
Then-unknown Marjorie Taylor Greene loaned her campaign $950,000 and won her seat in the 14th District, while a gun store owner named Andrew Clyde put in nearly $1.5 million and won in the 9th Congressional District.
We’ll continue to report out more numbers this cycle as they come in.
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On the topic of money, David Perdue was one of the nation’s most successful fundraisers in the 2020 election cycle. This year, he’s not only lagging far behind Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams, with about $900,000 cash-on-hand, he’s also trailing many down-ticket contenders.
AJC data guru Isaac Sabetai took a closer look at Perdue’s fundraising deficit. Of 70 individual donors who gave Perdue at least $8,000 in the 2020 campaign, only a handful contributed to his run for governor.
He still boasts some key supporters, and his latest filings show some donors still stroke him sizable checks. But it’s clear that many of the contributors who financed his last campaign are steering clear of this one.
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In a major development Friday morning, former Vice President Mike Pence will rally for Brian Kemp in Georgia the night before Georgia’s May 24th primary, marking a huge, visible split with Donald Trump.
It’s also a split with David Perdue, Kemp’s challenger. Pence headlined seven separate rallies for Perdue when the former senator ran for reelection in 2020 and 2021.
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House Speaker David Ralston endorsed Gov. Brian Kemp for reelection in Blue Ridge on Thursday, getting behind the governor ahead of his May 24 challenge from former Sen. David Perdue.
Following the endorsement and a signing ceremony for the 2023 state budget at University of North Georgia’s Blue Ridge campus, Ralston hosted a fundraiser for the governor that raised more than $50,000.
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Catch up on Brian Kemp’s newest endorsements, Herschel Walker’s latest messaging, and more on the Friday edition of the AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast.
Listen below and subscribe for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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Georgia Democrats will have multiple attacks ready for Brian Kemp if he emerges from his primary battle against David Perdue.
Expect a major theme to be, “Brian Kemp doesn’t care,” already in use in a landing page for the Democratic Party of Georgia.
We haven’t seen anything similar prepped for David Perdue, which gives an indication of which Republican the Democrats expect to meet in November.
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Earlier this week, we included an article from the Savannah Morning News, which pegged attendance at a Stacey Abrams event there at about 75 people.
The Abrams campaign reached out to your Jolters with a photo of the crowd, which was closer to 125 by their count.
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We also reported earlier this week that Stacey Abrams headlined the Human Rights Campaign’s gala in Atlanta Saturday night and highlighted an ad she’d seen from state Sen. Butch Miller, who is a GOP candidate for lieutenant governor.
Miller’s ad focused on the new state law he pushed through the Senate to keep transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports, which Abrams slammed. “How dare he?”
Now Miller has a new ad backed by a six-figure buy, with Abrams’ remarks and a narrator saying, “How dare you, Stacey Abrams.”
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The legal system in Georgia is getting a workout as challenges continue to the 2020 election and new challenges are filed as a part of the 2022 cycle.
- A Fulton County judge Thursday rejected former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s request to inspect ballots from the November 2020 election, saying his evidence of voting fraud amounts to “speculation, conjecture and paranoia — sufficient fodder for talk shows, op-ed pieces and social media platforms, but far short of what would legally justify a court taking such action.” The fraud case has been a focal point of Perdue’s stump speech for governor.
- Administrative Law Judge Charles R. Beaudrot, who recently recommended that U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene remain on 2022 ballots, has recommended that former state Rep. Jeff Lewis, a candidate for the Georgia Senate, be declared ineligible to run in 2022. More from the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu:
Beaudrot ruled Thursday that Jeff Lewis, who served in the state House for about 15 years, is not eligible for the May 24 primary due to a law passed earlier this year that said candidates must be current on any campaign finance filings to be eligible to run for office.
Lewis failed to file his reports for a decade.
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Also, Forsyth County officials voted unanimously Thursday to reject a sweeping voter challenge from a local resident, the AJC’s Shannon McCaffrey reports.
The challenge to nearly 18,000 voters came after Frank Schneider compared voter rolls to the National Change of Address database.
Election board members said that information alone did not amount to probable cause and that the database is unreliable.
A separate challenge to about 500 voters from the same resident resulted in further investigation for 10 of them.
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Once U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath decided to challenge fellow incumbent Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia’s 7th District, there was initially some confusion about which side Ambassador Andrew Young was on.
Young had endorsed both women when they were running in separate districts, and McBath’s decision to move from the 6th to the 7th took him by surprise.
But Bourdeaux has always claimed Young’s endorsement, and during an appearance with her on Thursday, Young explained why he’s staying with Bourdeaux, who is a former faculty member at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
“We are in an awkward position here because we’ve got candidates in this primary,” he told the crowd, according to a news release from the Bourdeaux campaign. “I know two of the three, but the person I am here supporting is the person I’ve known the longest and has been the most active in the things that I have found important.”
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Social Security Works PAC has scheduled a call for this morning to talk about its endorsement in the 7th Congressional District primary.
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The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to another term. It was one of the few instances that saw a split vote from Georgia’s two Democratic senators.
While U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock voted yes, U.S. Sen. John Ossoff was among the 19 members to vote “no.” Ossoff said he wished Powell well but felt that he had made wrong calls in attempting to control inflation during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I like and respect Chairman Powell,” the Atlanta Democrat said in a statement after the vote. “But 8.3 percent inflation is hurting my constituents a year after the Fed predicted inflation was ‘transitory.’”
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A new report released by a House subcommittee says former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was among the officials under Donald Trump’s administration who assisted the meatpacking industry in downplaying employees’ concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.
An excerpt from a section that attempts to make the case that companies tried to keep employees on the job despite unsafe conditions:
In April 2020, the CEOs of JBS, Smithfield, Tyson, and other meatpacking companies had a call with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, during which they asked him to “elevate the need for messaging about the importance of our workforce staying at work to the POTUS or VP level” and separately stressed the need to make clear that “being afraid of COVID-19 is not a reason to quit your job and you are not eligible for unemployment compensation if you do.”
These efforts led to Vice President Pence issuing a direct message to meatpacking workers in a press conference that “we need you to continue . . . to show up and do your job,” admonishing recent “incidents of worker absenteeism.”
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Several Republicans in Georgia’s delegation participated in a wreath-laying event Thursday morning hosted by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter brought flowers to honor Sgt. Kelvin Bernard Ansari, a Savannah officer who died in the line of duty in 2019. Rep. Andrew Clyde laid a wreath in honor of Jackson County Deputy Lena Marshall, who died in a November shootout while responding to a domestic violence call.
Rep. Rick Allen also delivered remarks during a press conference at the Capitol to mark National Police Week.
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U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk has written to Attorney General Merrick Garland about protecting members of the United States Supreme Court following protests at their Washington-area homes.
The protests followed the leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito that indicated the court could soon overturn Roe v. Wade.
Loudermilk asked for an update about what the Department of Justice is doing to prevent intimidation of the justices and to protect them from harassment and potential danger.
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Today in Washington:
- The Senate is out.
- The House has one last bill on the agenda before breaking for the weekend.
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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is serving as commencement speaker at his alma mater, Morehouse College, on Sunday.
He will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters, and the school will unveil an oil painting of Warnock, now one of its highest profile alums.
House Democratic Whip James Clyburn will receive an honorary doctorate of laws during the ceremony.
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Dean of the state House, Calvin Smyre isn’t a U.S. Ambassador just yet, so his hometown of Columbus took the chance to throw him a party.
The Columbus Chamber of Commerce honored Smyre last night for his 48 years in the Legislature.
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As always, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
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