James_September-October_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 67
Funding & Voter Enthusiasm
Swing voters tend to be whites
with a college education. Democrats who have won statewide
elections since 2020 have won
about 40 percent of these voters.
Georgia has more white voters
who did not graduate college so
a Democrat who gets 40 percent
of the college-educated vote will
need more than 20 percent of the
vote from whites with less formal
education. It’s significant that
ignoring whites who did not go to
college can prove fatal. Democrat
presidential candidate Kamala
Harris got the white college-educated vote needed to win (43
percent) but lost by 115,000 votes
since she managed just 18 percent
of the non-college white vote.
As this is written, polling
shows the gubernatorial contest is
close. Jackson hopes that millions
of dollars in television ads will
change voters’ perceptions about
COLLINS
OSSOFF
Bottoms. Much as Jackson’s ads
trashed opponent Lt. Gov. Burt
Jones in the primary, the Republican is questioning Bottoms’ character, leadership and judgment.
And Jackson is less well known
than Bottoms, which means there
is more room for him to make gains
as voters learn more about him.
Bottoms cannot match Jackson’s funding advantage. However,
candidates who have tried to use
great success in the private sector
as a springboard to political leadership have not fared well in Georgia.
Guy Millner lost two gubernatorial
and a Senate election in the 1990s.
On the Democratic side, Michael
Coles lost bids for the U.S. House
and Senate. More recently Loeffler
lost a U.S. Senate race to Warnock.
David Perdue is the only candidate
to make the transition Jackson is
attempting. Perhaps the reason that
other wealthy candidates came up
short was that they failed to match
Jackson’s spending.
Early polls show Ossoff leading Collins in the U.S. Senate race.
Ossoff has a financial advantage
S E PT E M B E R/O C TO BER 2026
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