Georgia Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Keisha Lance Bottoms (Democrat) and Rick Jackson (Republican) are the candidates for governor of Georgia in the November 3, 2026 general election. Semblen has analyzed 72 ads in this race; 43 used at least one manipulation technique, most often loaded language and glittering generalities. Next date for voters: Early voting starts: Tue, Oct 13.
Keisha Lance Bottoms (DEM), Rick Jackson (REP).
On the ballot as listed by Ballotpedia. 72 ads analyzed, 43 with at least one technique in the copy.
Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing. Updated 2026-10-08. 5 ads from other advertisers shown separately below.
Anyone can vote by mail; request a ballot by Fri, Oct 23 (application must be received 11 days before the election); return it by Tue, Nov 3 (received by the county registrar by close of polls (7 p.m.) Election Day)Source: sos.ga.gov ↗Source: sos.ga.gov ↗Source: sos.ga.gov ↗
Government-issued photo ID required (driver's license even if expired, free state ID, passport, military ID, public college student ID, government employee ID)Source: sos.ga.gov ↗
42 of 70 (60%) flagged · Loaded Language (23), Glittering Generalities (22), Appeal to Fear (11)
YouTube
1 of 2 flagged · Appeal to Prejudice (1), Glittering Generalities (1), Repetition (1)
Reported Meta spend
$685,000–871,206 on all ads, $544,200–689,572 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
Example
“Georgia will be the envy of the nation” — Glittering Generalities, paid for by Jackson for Governor, Inc.
· the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
Embed this race on your site
A small box with these findings and the newest ads, updated as new ads are analyzed. Free for newsrooms, blogs and campaigns alike; it links back here.
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An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
Each side is the campaign plus the groups backing it. How a group is placed is explained below the table.
Side
Ads
With at least one technique
Most common
Bottoms (D)
5
3 of 5
Loaded Language (3), Appeal to Fear (2), Appeal to Prejudice (2)
All from the campaign; no ads here from groups placed on this side.
Jackson (R)
27
18 of 27 (67%)
Glittering Generalities (11), Loaded Language (6), Appeal to Prejudice (5)
All from the campaign; no ads here from groups placed on this side.
Not placed on a side (11 sponsors)
40
22 of 40 (55%)
Loaded Language (14), Glittering Generalities (11), Appeal to Fear (8)
Read this before comparing the sides. Ads that attack an opponent use these techniques far more often than ads that introduce a candidate, whoever runs them, so the side running more attack ads shows a higher share. A technique is about wording, not about whether an ad is true. These are online ads only (Meta and YouTube), not television.
Appeal to Prejudice (1), Glittering Generalities (1), Repetition (1)
How a group is placed: by its own filings with the Federal Election Commission. A group is with a candidate when it reported spending to support that candidate, or to oppose the other one in the general election. The parties' own committees are with their nominee. Spending against a candidate in a primary places a group nowhere, and neither does our reading of its ads: a group with no such filing is listed as not placed. The sponsor table gives the reason for each.
Decide what counts
Not everyone would call every technique manipulation. Untick the ones you'd call ordinary persuasion and the count updates.
60% of the 72 ads here use at least one of the techniques ticked below (43 ads).
Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 40% of ads.
The words doing the work
The words that show up most in phrases our model flagged as loaded language or name calling in this race's ads, by number of ads.
policyin 3 ads· e.g. “her disastrous policies”, “radical policies”
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Georgia's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
72 ads, newest first. Video transcripts are shown as the model read them, without caption cues like [music].
Showing the 1 ad paid for by AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY. Show all 72 ads
Paid for by AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITYfrom 2026-09-218 variantsspend $30,000–34,9925,050,000–4,649,993 impressions
Rick Jackson will protect our Georgia values and fight to keep radical policies out of our state.
Glittering Generalities: The phrase 'Georgia values' is vague and emotionally positive, invoking a sense of shared identity and noble principles without specifying what those values actually are — for example: 'our Georgia values'
Loaded Language: The word 'radical' is used as an emotionally charged label to trigger a negative reaction toward opposing policies without substantive description — for example: 'radical policies'
Appeal to Prejudice: The framing of 'our Georgia values' and 'our state' invokes in-group identity to distinguish true Georgians from outsiders pushing 'radical policies' — for example: 'our Georgia values', 'our state'
Glittering Generalities
Loaded Language
Appeal to Prejudice
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
Paid posts that ran in GA and name a candidate, from advertisers that aren't part of this race: news-style pages, campaigns for other offices, and others. They're shown here for completeness and not counted with the ads above. We show the same technique analysis; their claims are not checked.
HCSO Foundation: not a political advertiser
Paid for by HCSO Foundationfrom 2026-09-21 to 2026-09-24spend $0–992,000–2,999 impressions
GRITS & GRACE: OUR FIRST INVITED GUEST ANNOUNCEMENT! 🎙️
The conversation is getting started.
Sheriff Reginald B. Scandrett and the Henry County Sheriff’s Office are pleased to announce The Honorable Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Mayor of Atlanta and author of The Rough Side of the Mountain: A Memoir, as an invited guest for Grits & Grace: Let’s Talk.
From public service to the deeply personal journey she shares in her memoir, this fireside conversation will go beyond titles and headlines to talk about leadership, life, resilience, community and the experiences that shape us.
📅 Monday, October 12 | 10 AM
Grits & Grace is part of National Faith & Blue Weekend and is designed to bring people together for real conversation around Community. Climate. Concerns.
And this is only the beginning. More invited guest announcements are coming.
🎟️ Registration is required. Secure your seat today at HCSOFoundation.org.
#GritsAndGrace #LetsTalk #FaithAndBlue #HenryCounty #HCSO #CommunityConversation
Paid for by The Georgia Democratfrom 2026-09-07 to 2026-09-152 variantsspend $0–1984,100–5,998 impressions
🚨 Georgia Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson pledged at a July rally in Marietta that, if elected governor, he would push the Georgia General Assembly to match the federal Trump Account contribution with an additional $1,000 per child. The remarks were made at a Wheeler High School event in Cobb County where President Donald Trump also appeared. Footage of the pledge was posted to X by USA First Lab.
Jackson's exact words, confirmed by the Daily Signal: "I want to announce, when I become governor, I'm going to push the state of Georgia to match the federal contribution with another $1,000. I believe our Legislature will approve that." Jackson added that if the legislature does not approve the match, he would personally donate the $1,000 himself, a claim that carries weight given he has poured more than $100 million of his own money into his campaign.
The federal Trump Accounts program, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, seeds a $1,000 investment account for every U.S. citizen child born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028. Funds grow tax-deferred in low-cost U.S. stock index funds until the child turns 18. No state matching proposal has been formally introduced in the Georgia General Assembly, and legislative leaders have not publicly committed to backing one.
Jackson, founder of Jackson Healthcare and the Republican nominee for the 2026 gubernatorial race, will face Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the general election. His state match proposal remains a campaign commitment contingent on winning the governorship and securing legislative approval. Would a state match make Trump Accounts more impactful for Georgia families? 👇
#Georgia #RickJackson #TrumpAccounts #GeorgiaGovernor #GeorgiaPolitics #Breaking
Paid for by The Georgia Democratfrom 2026-08-25 to 2026-09-022 variantsspend $0–1982,000–3,998 impressions
More than 100 Georgia Sheriffs are reportedly backing Republican Rick Jackson’s Gubernatorial bid.
Jackson is currently in a closely contested race against former Atlana Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Do you think this will have an impact on the race? 👇
An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in GA and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names GA's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.
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