ATLANTA, Ga. — With early voting finished and the race for governor polling as a dead heat, the two nominees, Republican Rick Jackson and Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, spent the final weekend before Tuesday’s election working opposite ends of Georgia.
Jackson, a billionaire health care executive, held one of his last big rallies Friday night at Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, a regular stop for Republican candidates in Cobb County. U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan joined him onstage along with GOP candidates for offices from lieutenant governor down to insurance commissioner. Jackson told the crowd he wants to build on the record of Gov. Brian Kemp, and he went after Bottoms over her time as mayor of Atlanta, arguing that a poor record running a city does not qualify someone to run the state.
Jackson has put $220 million into his campaign, about three-quarters of it on television advertising. His last rally before the vote is set for Cumming on Sunday evening, and he also has a stop on the schedule at the Savannah airport at 2 p.m. Monday.
Bottoms spent Friday evening as the featured speaker at a Fulton County Democratic Party dinner, sharing the bill with former Vice President Kamala Harris and telling the room that the energy for her campaign outside metro Atlanta is even stronger than inside it. Earlier Friday she stopped at a Savannah cafe on a five-day swing through the state, pitching lower costs, continued SNAP food benefits, Medicaid expansion and education funding. She also said she would continue Kemp’s push to keep Georgia ranked as the top state for business.
On Saturday she moved into southwest Georgia with U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, with stops at Warehouse 9 in Columbus, the Old Post Office in Bainbridge and Oakridge Baptist Church in Albany to urge supporters to make a plan to vote.
Polls show the race essentially tied heading into Election Day. Voters who did not vote early must cast ballots at their assigned precinct on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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Filed under: Atlanta GA Politics News
