Who funded Sen. Dickerson · 2025 special election + 2026
Pinned — Half the money is his own
$750,000 lent to himself · $500,000 still owed back
Dickerson lent his own campaign $750,000 in three installments during the 2025 special election — $500,000 on April 8, $100,000 on August 22, and $150,000 on September 5 — roughly half of everything his committee took in. His committee reports $500,000 of that still outstanding, which under Georgia law he may repay himself out of money raised later, including after the election. He finished second in the seven-way August special with 3,709 votes, then won the September runoff 61.5% to 38.5%.
Identified Contributors
This is a partial list, and we say so plainly. Dickerson’s committee reports roughly $750,000 in contributions, but Georgia’s public transaction search does not return his itemized donor records — every one of his filed reports is flagged as not indexed, leaving about 1,415 itemized rows unsearchable. These four are the only individual donors currently retrievable. We are working to obtain the filed reports directly and will publish the full donor table when we have it.
| # | Contributor | Total |
| 1 | Billy Hayes (Canton, GA) | $1,000.00 |
| 2 | Jeremy Dickerson (Canton, GA) | $100.00 |
| 3 | Ken Hippler (South Saint Paul, MN) | $15.62 |
| 4 | Zachary Bennett (Acworth, GA) | $2.00 |
$750,118 raised · $651,946 cash on hand — as of May 6, 2026 (GA Ethics latest filing).
Source: The GA Files' tally of primary Georgia Ethics Commission records — the 2022–2025 archive system (special-election filings) plus PeachFile (2026 onward). Loans are reported separately from contributions under Georgia's disclosure rules. Through the 2026 Apr 30 CCDR, filed May 6, 2026, the committee reports $750,117.62 in cumulative contributions, $848,171.51 in cumulative expenditures and $651,946.11 cash on hand; its cumulative loans-received figure of $1,000,000 does not reconcile with the $750,000 itemized in the filings or with the reported balance, and we have not resolved that discrepancy. Corrections are welcome.
Sources