Georgia’s gubernatorial race is a wild card for Democrats, who are running two different candidates, each backed by a super PAC.
The first Democrat, Republican Josh Mandel, is hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s disastrous runoff.
His opponent, Democrat Jack Hill, is trying to avoid losing his job.
The other Democrat, Democrat Karen Handel, has been raising money for both candidates for months.
Her campaign has raised $1.5 million since January, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity.
Handel’s campaign raised $2.6 million in the same time period, and her super PAC has raised nearly $500,000.
Handel’s super PAC reported that it has raised a total of $11.2 million from more than 50,000 donors, including $1 million from the American Federation of Teachers.
Democrats are hoping that Handel can pull off a upset.
They are banking on her ability to tap into the anger over the state’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus outbreak and a lack of public funding for hospitals and schools.
Mandel and Hill have clashed over whether to privatize hospitals.
Mandel said in March that he would like to cut funding for public hospitals in Georgia, a move that would create more jobs.
Hill responded by saying Mandel had no plan to do so.
The two are now engaged in a war of words, with Mandel accusing Hill of trying to sabotage his campaign and accusing him of using his position to try to intimidate donors.
“He’s trying to intimidate his way into it,” Mandel told a radio station on March 18.
“It’s like a circus.
He’s trying his best to get it, but he can’t get it.”
Handel has a more positive outlook, however.
She has been courting donors by using her platform to highlight her record of work to improve public schools and to fight for affordable housing.
In an interview on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Morning Report, Handel said she has “been working very hard to get this job done and to get these kids back on their feet.”
“The people of Georgia have come together in a special way and we’re going to do our best to bring them together again,” Handel told the newspaper.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.