beauty products. When Georges joined the Imperial Trading Company it was a $29 million business; today, he claims the estimated sales at nearly $1 billion annually. In 2016, Imperial acquired S. Abraham and Sons in Grand Rapids Michigan. Combined, they make the 5th largest convenience store distributor in the United States with 6 distribution centers servicing stores in 20 states. In 2009 Georges bought into Galatoire's restaurant, a world famous restaurant located on Bourbon Street, which is known for its rowdy Friday lunches. On April 30, 2013, Georges completed the purchase of The Advocate, the largest daily newspaper in Louisiana. He is the new publisher of The Advocate, a paper founded in 1842. In March 2013, Georges signed a letter of intent to purchase The Advocate, whose circulation in 2013 is 98,000 (daily) and 125,000 (Sunday) as a result of its entry and 20,000 subscriptions in the New Orleans market following the decision of The Times-Picayune to limit print publications to 3 days a week. The Advocate serves readers not only in the capital city and its environs but a swath of territory from Lafayette to New Orleans. It is among the relatively few newspapers in the United States whose print circulation is growing. Since 1909, The Advocate has been owned by Charles P. Manship, Sr., and his subsequent heirs. Georges named Dan Shea as general manager of The Advocate and Peter Kovacs as the editor. In 2019, Georges purchased The Times-Picayune and merged it with the New Orleans edition of The Advocate to form The Times-Picayune The New Orleans Advocate. The acquisition brought daily news and daily paper deliveries back to New Orleans. The Times Picayune - New Orleans Advocate's website, Nola.com, reaches over 90 million unique worldwide readers every year. The Advocate was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for local reporting on the lack of unanimous vote for criminal convictions. 2007 campaign for governor John Georges came in third place in the 2007 Louisiana gubernatorial election, despite having never run for public office previously. As an Independent, he finished third in the balloting with 186,800 votes (14 percent). He achieved a plurality in his hometown of New Orleans. Republican Bobby Jindal, making his second bid for governor, won outright in the primary with 54 percent of the vote. Democrats Walter Boasso, a departing state senator from St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans, and Foster Campbell, a Louisiana