Democrats Outvote GOP in Georgia as Both Sides Raise Record Sums Ahead of Primaries

Georgia voters head to the polls on Tuesday in primaries that span gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, state legislative, and judicial races. At the top of the ticket are an open governor’s race as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited, and the Senate seat now held by Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Democrats are leading early voting and federal fundraising behind Ossoff, who is running unopposed, while Republicans lead state-level fundraising in a crowded gubernatorial primary field. Five Republicans are vying for the right to challenge Ossoff in November, as both parties face contested gubernatorial primaries.

Democrats have cast 56.7 percent of the 1,025,949 early primary ballots in Georgia ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, compared with 41.7 percent for Republicans, according to data published by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. 

The contrast with the 2022 primary cycle is sharp. That year, Republicans dominated early voting with 483,149 ballots (56.4 percent) to the Democrats’ 368,949 (43.0 percent) of the 857,401 early votes cast before the May 24 primary, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The Democrats’ 56.7 percent share of early ballots in 2026 is now almost identical to the Republican share in 2022 (56.4 percent)—a near-mirror reversal of which party showed up in greater numbers ahead of Election Day.

In the federal races, Ossoff, considered the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent on the 2026 Senate map, through April 29 had raised more than $74 million for his November reelection bid—more than any other federal candidate in the country this cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission. 

Ossoff’s pre-primary haul outpaces the record-breaking run by Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022. Warnock raised $51.4 million in total receipts through his comparable pre-primary filing in May 2022, about $23 million less than Ossoff has raised by the same point in this cycle. 

On the Republican side, five candidates are competing for the nomination: Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, former college football coach Derek Dooley. John Coyne, and former Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Jonathan McColumn. The three leading GOP candidates have reported roughly $15 million in combined total receipts through their pre-primary FEC filings, with Carter leading at $6.9 million—including a $3 million personal loan—followed by Collins at $4.6 million and Dooley at $3.9 million. Collins’s total also includes about $1.3 million transferred from his U.S. House campaign committee.

At the state level, billionaire health-care executive Rick Jackson has self-funded $83 million of his Republican gubernatorial bid, and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has loaned his campaign $16 million of his own money, according to filings with the Georgia State Ethics Commission.

Democrats are choosing their gubernatorial nominee from a seven-candidate field: former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, state Sen. Jason Esteves, former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, former pastor Olu Brown, state Rep. Derrick Jackson, and Amanda Duffy. 

Esteves and Bottoms are essentially tied as top fundraisers at about $2.97 million and $2.90 million, respectively; the field has raised roughly $8.8 million combined, according to filings with the Georgia State Ethics Commission.

Polling from Emerson College in early March showed Ossoff leading each of the three top Republican challengers by between three and eight points.

If no candidate clears 50 percent in the Republican Senate primary or either party’s gubernatorial primary, the top two finishers will compete in a June 16 runoff. The general election is Nov. 3.