Georgia’s governor candidates are pitching different tax and health care policies as recent polls put Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson close ahead of the Nov. 3 vote.
State Navigate’s Oct. 23-27 survey put Bottoms at 50% and Jackson at 47% with leaners, a three-point difference within the poll’s 3.8-percentage-point margin of error. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s earlier poll, conducted by telephone by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs from Oct. 7-15, found Jackson at 46% and Bottoms at 45%, with 8% undecided among 1,000 likely voters. Its 3.1-percentage-point margin of error also exceeded the one-point gap, leaving the surveys without a clear polling leader.
Bottoms’ campaign says she would expand Medicaid. Jackson’s campaign plan calls for cutting Georgia’s state income tax in half within four years and freezing property taxes.
The campaigns have also traded attacks over Atlanta’s 2020 unrest and President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reported that Jackson’s television ads used footage of demonstrations and violence in Atlanta during Bottoms’ time as mayor. Bottoms has linked Jackson to Trump; at a rally, Jackson said he would be “this man’s favorite governor,” AP reported.
AP also reported, citing federal statistics, that Atlanta’s increase in crime during Bottoms’ mayoral tenure tracked a broader rise across the country during the pandemic.
Campaign spending has been another contrast. AP reported that Jackson had spent more than $200 million of his own money on the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calculated from campaign-finance disclosures that Jackson put another $92.5 million into the race since August, including $4.5 million after the Oct. 20 reporting deadline. The newspaper put combined fundraising by Bottoms’ campaign account and leadership committee at $23.2 million for August through October, after accounting for transfers.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office reported 2,000,452 in-person early votes and 97,382 accepted absentee ballots as of 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 27. Advance in-person voting ends Friday, Oct. 30, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. If elected, Bottoms would be the first Black woman elected governor in a U.S. state, AP reported.
