GA07: McBath widens fundraising edge over Bourdeaux as primary intensifies
McBath enters Q2 with $2.8M on hand
With just over one month to go until the May primary election, Rep. Lucy McBath (D) is widening her fundraising advantage over fellow Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D) in the primary for the new solidly Democratic 7th District.
McBath, who is currently in her second term representing the neighboring 6th district, decided to face off against Bourdeaux after Republican state lawmakers reconfigured her suburban district into a Republican stronghold.
The freshman Bourdeaux was the only Democrat to flip a competitive Republican-held district in the 2020 election. In last year’s redistricting session, mapmakers transformed the Gwinnett-anchored 7th district from competitive to solidly Democratic, pitting the two Democratic newcomers against one another.
Federal fundraising reports filed late Friday night revealed that McBath raised more than $800,000 in the first three months of 2022 while expanding her campaign coffers to $2.8 million.
Bourdeaux’s report said that she raised around $590,000 in the first quarter and has a total of about $2.1 million in the bank.
The fundraising numbers were revealed just hours after a new story in the Associated Press provided us with a temperature check of this hotly contested primary.
Bourdeaux, who once described McBath as a ‘sister,’ chastised the two-term Democrat’s decision to switch districts. “If the shoe were on the other foot, it would not have crossed my mind in a million years to go over to the sixth (district) and run against her,” Bourdeaux told the AP, arguing that McBath is unnecessarily devoting time and resources to defeating her in a primary that could be used to defeat Republicans in November.
McBath has said that she wants to continue her work in Congress to honor the memory of her slain son Jordan, who was murdered at a Jacksonville gas station in 2012. “I have just refused to let Brian Kemp and the NRA gun lobby and the Republican Party decide who represents our communities in Georgia,” McBath said of the new Republican-drawn political maps.
The new 7th district is over 60% Democratic and is incredibly diverse, with white voters making up less than a third of the district’s population. As such, you can expect next month’s Democratic primary to be comprised overwhelmingly of voters of color.
Both incumbents are touting noteworthy endorsements. Gwinnett County commission chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young are both supporting Bourdeaux, while former Gwinnett school chairman Everton Blair and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn have endorsed McBath.
Bourdeaux enters the May primary with an important geographical advantage, as she currently represents roughly half of the new 7th district. Next month’s primary will also be her sixth time being on the ballot in Gwinnett County in the last 4 years.
While McBath doesn’t currently represent the district, she might benefit from the district’s diversity. Its strong Democratic voting patterns could also allow her to cast Bourdeuax, a Blue Dog, as too moderate for this increasingly liberal district.
No matter the outcome, the seemingly promising careers of one of these Democratic rising starts will soon be cut short, a prospect that many in the party are dreading after a historic 2020 election that saw Georgia hand Democrats the White House and the U.S. Senate majority.
“We have two great, caring people that are Democrats, but through this gerrymandering at the state Legislature, they just cut them up and dilute the democratic process,” one voter told the AP.
Ummm interesting information 👏🏾
Happy Easter, my favorite nephew in the WWW! Excellent reporting!