From Investment Manager to Candidate: Jim Barksdale Tries On A New Hat

Hold onto your hats, because Democrat Jim Barksdale is out with a new ad, and he stillloves his newsboy cap. He has centered basically his whole Georgian Senate campaign around his signature accessory. The newsboy cap is on his head (and his supporter’s heads) in all press, it is featured in his ads and it even appears in his logo.In the new spot, called “Symbol,” Barksdale describes the meaning behind his beloved cap. He describes how his hat itself is a symbol that silently represent two things about him; who he is and what he is fighting for.One thing that the cap symbolizes, according to Barksdale, is his priorities. He calls out both Democrats and Republicans alike for signing onto “bad foreign trade deals that send our jobs overseas,” which makes it impossible to find a hat made in Georgia. He makes a deal with the voters that he will vote against such trade deals as long as they vote against his opponent, Republican incumbent Senator Johnny Isakson.The hat also represents who he is, because as he stated in another ad , it makes him stand out. Barksdale shows by his stylistic choices that he is not afraid to be different from the crowd, or vote against the norm. His old-timey paperboy cap is associated with the working class, reminding voters that Barksdale is “not a career politician.”It was Barksdale’s non-political career as an investment manager that made him wealthy enough to drop his career at the drop of a hat and fund his own campaign for senate. So far, he is reported to have spent over $3 million dollars on the campaign. As for how much he is willing to spend, Barksdale is keeping that number under his hat, but has joked that he is too much of a “tightwad” to spend more than $20 million.Both Barksdale and Isakson have seen their poll numbers rise and fall parallel to the to the presidential race. An August poll showed that Barksdale was only six points behind Isakson. Georgia has voted Republican in almost every presidential election since 1980 – with the exception of voting for Bill Clinton in 1992.However, the state seems to be more competitive than ever this year, with both Isakson, a Republican, and the rest of the state seemingly reluctant to support Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has even started running ads in Georgia – a sign that her campaign sees a possible win there.Georgia law requires the Senate front-runner to earn more than 50% of the vote to win. Since the August poll shows neither candidate reaching that type of majority, it is possible that the two will end up in a nine-week runoff. Eventually, one of them will have to pull the win out of a hat.