Brad Raffensperger sues to win more campaign spending power in Georgia governor race

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s campaign finance rules, claiming they unfairly benefit Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the upcoming gubernatorial race. The legal action, filed Monday in Atlanta, argues that Raffensperger’s political action committee should be allowed to coordinate with his campaign in the same manner as Jones’ leadership committee.

“This filing simply asks the court to ensure fairness so that our committee has the same ability to communicate with voters as others already do,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “Equal access to speech isn’t political or complicated — it’s a foundational American principle that must be upheld.”

The lawsuit centers around Georgia’s controversial 2021 leadership committee law, which allows certain officeholders to establish committees that can raise unlimited funds and coordinate directly with campaigns. Critics have characterized the law as an “incumbent protection racket” designed to help Governor Brian Kemp, Jones, and other Republican officials maintain their grip on state politics.

Jones spokesperson Kayla Lott dismissed the legal challenge as “pathetic” but did not address its substance.

Attorney General Chris Carr, also running for governor, announced his office would not defend the law due to a conflict of interest stemming from his own previous lawsuit against Jones. The governor’s office will appoint separate counsel to represent the state in this matter.

“Burt Jones has rigged the system to benefit himself,” said Carr campaign spokesperson Neil Bitting. “That is not just unethical and wrong, it is unconstitutional.”

The litigation represents the latest in a series of legal challenges to Georgia’s leadership committee law. Under current regulations, only candidates who have secured their party’s nomination for governor or lieutenant governor can establish leadership committees that raise unlimited funds, even during legislative sessions when other fundraising is prohibited. Other candidates are restricted to traditional campaign committees with contribution limits of $8,400 per donor.

Raffensperger established an independent committee called Safe Affordable Georgia that can raise unlimited funds for other candidates but not for himself. His lawsuit argues this restriction violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and free association.

“Alone among current candidates for governor, the sitting lieutenant governor can solicit and accept unlimited contributions that can support his own campaign,” Raffensperger’s lawyers argue. “That means that one current candidate for governor has different campaign finance rules that govern him than the other candidates. The Constitution does not allow this.”

The legal strategy mirrors Carr’s earlier unsuccessful lawsuit, which was dismissed in August by U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert. She ruled that Carr should have challenged the constitutionality of the law itself rather than suing Jones for “doing exactly what Georgia law allows them to do.”

The campaign finance dispute has intensified following a recent opinion by the Georgia Ethics Commission that cleared Jones to loan $10 million to his leadership committee. Jones filed documents showing loans of $7.5 million and $2.5 million to the WBJ Leadership Committee when he announced his gubernatorial bid on July 8, effectively allowing him to leverage his family’s wealth in pursuit of the Republican nomination.

Jones, Raffensperger, and Carr are the leading Republican contenders vying to succeed term-limited Governor Brian Kemp. Both Republican and Democratic primaries are scheduled for May, with the general election to follow in November 2026.

The case references a 2022 federal court ruling that previously found Georgia’s “unequal campaign finance scheme” violated former U.S. Senator David Perdue’s First Amendment rights during his primary challenge against Kemp.

Like Raffensperger, Carr’s supporters have established an independent committee that cannot coordinate directly with his campaign, highlighting the broader implications of the legal battle over campaign finance regulations in Georgia politics.