ATLANTA – Two Republican state senators are waging an expensive battle for lieutenant governor for a statewide race that’s not at the top of the ballot.
Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller of Gainesville and Sen. Burt Jones of Jackson each had raised more than $3 million through the end of last year, according to reports filed with the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission late last week.
While Jones raised more money than Miller through Dec. 31 – $3.78 million to $3.39 million – $2 million of Jones’ war chest came in the form of a $2 million loan he made to his campaign.
“Excluding the millions that Burt Jones poured into the campaign from his silver spoon, Butch is outraising him nearly 2-to-1,” Neil Bitting, Miller’s campaign manager, said Monday.
The GOP race for lieutenant governor is one of several Republican primary contests in which former President Donald Trump has gotten involved. Trump has endorsed Jones, who has sided publicly with the former president’s unproven allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Miller has cast a large profile during the early weeks of this year’s General Assembly session, sponsoring legislation to eliminate Georgia’s income tax and abolish absentee ballot drop boxes.
The other Republican candidate in the race for lieutenant governor, Savannah activist Jeanne Seaver, had not filed a campaign finance report with the state as of Monday.
None of the four Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for lieutenant governor had filed campaign fundraising paperwork as of Monday. They include state Reps. Erick Allen of Smyrna, Derrick Jackson of Tyrone, Renitta Shannon of Decatur and attorney Charlie Bailey.
Bailey only recently entered the contest after dropping his bid for attorney general and, thus, wasn’t due to file a campaign fundraising report at the end of last month.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.