Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is considering a run for governor as a liberal foil to President Donald Trump. But for the last few years, the Democrat has had an unusual ally: MAGA-aligned operative Jason Boles.
Boles is the founder of Tabularius Group, a compliance firm for conservative groups, politicians, and political candidates. But he is also the listed treasurer of Georgia’s Promise Inc, a nonprofit 501(c)4 that is affiliated with Lance Bottoms.
Lance Bottoms’ professional ties to Boles stretch back as early as 2020, when Boles told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he had helped prepare one of her disclosure reports when he worked with RTA Strategy.
Boles left RTA last year to found Tabularius Group. According to the group’s website, Tabularius is grounded in “America First conservative values and Judeo-Christian principles,” while being guided by “conservative principles.”
“At Tabularius Group, we are dedicated to supporting organizations that uphold conservative values,” another section states on the website.
Boles’ clients include MAGA figures like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Brian Jack. And publicly, Boles is an active supporter of Trump and conservative causes.
“If you’re a Democrat elected to Congress, your absolute failure to put America first is disgusting,” Boles recently posted on X. “Your deafness to Americans is painful. If you hate the Constitution and big ideas that empower Americans, maybe the USA is not for you? Fact check = True”
Campaign Crypto, a firm affiliated with Tabularius and Boles, also claimed that Rep. Mike Collins — another Trump loyalist — is one of its clients.
Boles was also listed as the treasurer for Republicans like Rep. Mary Miller, former Rep. George Santos and Bo Hines, who Trump appointed as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Digital Assets. (Hines ran for a congressional seat in North Carolina in 2024 but lost.)
Asked about the curious arrangement, Lance Bottoms acknowledged Boles’ role with her campaign.
“Jason Boles is the President and CEO of Tabularius, a prominent professional treasury services and regulatory reporting firm,” Lance Bottoms texted NOTUS. “Jason previously served as the managing partner of Georgia based RTA Strategy, where he worked with my mayoral campaign committee on compliance matters. His firm provides regulatory reporting and registered event services to Georgia’s Promise Inc., a not-for-profit social welfare organization in Georgia.”
Lance Bottoms did not comment on Boles’ MAGA ties.
Boles did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear if Tabularius Group maintains other Democratic clients, but Georgia’s Promise Inc. is a state-level nonprofit that Boles established in May 2023. The group was formally incorporated that same month by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, with Boles listed as the nonprofit’s incorporator and registered agent.
A month later, in her final disclosure report, Lance Bottoms’ campaign reported a $91,284 charitable donation to Georgia’s Promise Inc. The committee’s listed address was the same as RTA Strategy LLC, the financial compliance group where Boles previously worked.
Georgia’s Promise Inc. is not a federal campaign committee. But earlier this year, another group called ”Georgia’s Promise” popped up on the Federal Election Commission website.
Unlike the state-level nonprofit, the federal committee didn’t identify Boles as its treasurer on its FEC filing. However, when NOTUS called the number attributed to the listed treasurer, Kevin Woodie, a woman linked to an entirely different compliance firm — Movement Compliance — answered.
When asked about Boles’ relationship with Georgia’s Promise, the woman said she thought Boles was the group’s treasurer.
Follow up calls weren’t answered. And emails to Movement Compliance and Georgia’s Promise about Boles’ connection to the federal committee went unreturned.
Lance Bottoms told NOTUS that Boles “is not involved with the hybrid PAC, Georgia’s Promise.”
For most campaign roles, hiring an operative who has worked for the opposing party is “almost unheard of,” according to one veteran GOP strategist in Georgia.
“I can name very few on either side that do work for the other side,” the GOP strategist told NOTUS, requesting anonymity to speak freely. “I don’t know how you could be associated with America First and then go and work for any Democrat, much less one who’s more on the liberal side of the spectrum. It’s just not done.”
But, the strategist added, the financial compliance work that Boles does is a bit distinct from other campaign work.
“With compliance, that’s different,” the GOP strategist said. “That is substantively different than what I do or fundraising.”
Typically, a compliance operative is not an integral part of a campaign’s day-to-day operations. That person isn’t a part of strategy meetings or campaign calls, making it seemingly an exception among political roles, allowing an operative to focus on the finances and take clients of varying political persuasions.
That doesn’t mean it’s common to see a Democratic politician hire a Republican partisan.
A Georgia Democratic strategist told NOTUS “it doesn’t matter” that Boles is only in compliance. “It is technically true you have people like that who are bipartisan, but he’s not bipartisan,” this strategist said.
“She’s running in a primary,” the strategist added, “and this guy is the MAGA go-to guy. There are Democrats she should have gone to. There are Black-owned businesses she could have gone to.”
A potential gubernatorial campaign would be something of a political reemergence for the former Atlanta mayor. Lance Bottoms left office in 2022 after declining to run for reelection. She has spent much of the last two years out of the public eye.
The race to replace Gov. Brian Kemp has already begun, and a who’s-who list of Georgia politicos will be in the fray. Among Democrats, Rep. Lucy McBath has already announced her campaign. And former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond and state Sen. Jason Esteves are also expected to get involved.
Whoever wins the primary election could emerge into a favorable political atmosphere. During Trump’s first administration, Stacey Abrams almost defeated Kemp for the governor’s mansion, and without Kemp in the race, Republicans could have a hard time retaining the governor’s mansion.
“This is a judgment call for the candidate to have someone who’s profiling themselves or marketing themselves as America First on your payroll as a Democrat,” the GOP strategist said. “They’re not molding strategy or messaging or anything.”
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.