“One of my opponents…can’t win the primary, and the other can’t win the general election.” -Georgia AG Chris Carr (St. Simons event, February)
If you are like most people, versus political junkies like me, you probably have not been keeping up with the GOP primary race for Governor of Georgia. Well, the primaries are over. In the GOP primary for Governor, there were 4 candidates.
Two were traditional conservatives, honorable men who would have made good Governors. Brad Raffensperger is our Secretary of State, standing up to Trump when he demanded that Raffensperger “find” enough votes to have Trump win the 2020 election in Georgia. Georgia’s Secretary of State is Chris Carr. Carr admires former U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson and x-Governor Nathan Deal, both traditional conservatives.
If Carr or Raffensperger were elected, voters could expect their voting record to be much the same as theirs. But that is not what happened. GOP primary voters eliminated the traditionalists for the MAGA extremists- Burt Jones and Mike Jackson.
Rick Jackson is a previously unknown “outsider” who was suddenly is all over our TV screens for the last few months. Jackson, a self-made man who admirably rose from poverty, is obviously trying to use his vast wealth as founder of the Jackson Health company to buy the election (https://www.ajc.com/politics/2026/02/surprise-republican-rick-jackson-enters-georgia-governors-race/ ). Advertising paid off in that he won more votes than anyone else in the GOP primary.
For the last few months, an anonymous shadowy group called “Georgians for Integrity” has been filling the airwaves with $9 million in ads slamming front-runner Lt. Governor Burt Jones on a variety of ethical issues (see below). Although no one has taken credit for funding this mysterious group, it is not hard to theorize as to where their money is coming from. Speculation is that Jackson is rightfully hesitant to attack Jones directly in that Trump has already endorsed the Lt. Governor, a “false elector” who attempted to change the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election to make Trump President.
It is a fact, not a theory, that Trump lost the vote in Georgia to Joe Biden by 11,779 votes. But you would never know that if you listened to MAGA apologists like Burt Jones.
As a state senator, Burt Jones was one of the “false electors” attempting to unconstitutionally overthrow the November 2020 presidential election, which courts have repeatedly found to be fair and honest. Jones wanted a special legislative session held to reverse the 2020 election… an action which Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Raffensperger and other GOP officials rejected as unconstitutional.
Jones was subsequently elected Georgia’s lieutenant governor in 2022, which would have never happened except for the botching of the prosecution of the case against him by Frani Willis, Fulton County DA. Specifically, Jones and 15 others would have almost certainly been convicted of election interference except for her disgraceful incompetence. That effectively ended the prosecution of Jones. Per the judge reviewing the case — “The optics are horrific.”
Jones has other ethical issues, brought to light by “Georgians for Integrity.” If you go to their web site, you see an advertisement accusing Jones of trying to raise his state pension by 40 percent and pulling strings to get a Data Center built on his family’s land.
Other ads go after Jones for pushing legislation (Senate Bill 99) designed to gut the state’s regulatory Certificate of Needs (CON) laws …to get permission for his family to construct an unneeded hospital in rural Butts County. As a former Georgia director of Health Planning, I believe this charge to have merit. The demographics of Butts County would have caused the state CON authority to refuse to approve a totally unneeded facility.
There will be a runoff between Jones and Jackson with the winner to run against former Mayor Bottoms, a Democrat, in the general election. We can expect more negative ads. The one thing Jones has going for him is the Trump endorsement, key to 47 percent of GOP voters, as shown by the recent defeat of Louisiana Senator Cassidy (R) in that GOP primary.
