{"id":21366,"date":"2026-04-15T12:46:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rick-jackson-cannonballed-into-the-governor-race-its-having-ripple-effects-across-georgia\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:46:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:46:55","slug":"rick-jackson-cannonballed-into-the-governor-race-its-having-ripple-effects-across-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rick-jackson-cannonballed-into-the-governor-race-its-having-ripple-effects-across-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Jackson cannonballed into the governor race. It\u2019s having ripple effects across Georgia."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

HOMER, Georgia \u2014 The last few players of the day were finishing their rounds at the Chimney Oaks Golf Club when a steady wind picked up by the practice putting green. Pin flags bent to a near snap. A sleek helicopter slowly descended onto the manicured lawn.<\/p>\n

Rick Jackson had arrived.<\/p>\n

The billionaire health care executive turned GOP gubernatorial candidate was making his grand entrance as a headliner for a recent event hosted by the Banks County Republican Party. In many ways, it mimicked the same disruptive force with which he entered the race two months earlier: loud, ostentatious and out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

He rose from being a virtually unknown contender to a frontrunner in the polls by spending $50 million of his own money to flood the airwaves, social media and mailboxes with ads \u2014 nearly double the amount of all the candidates in both primaries for governor combined, according to an AdImpact analysis. He\u2019s cutting into Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones\u2019 margins with ultra-conservative voters and he\u2019s complicating Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger\u2019s path to making the June run-off.<\/p>\n

\"Jackson<\/p>\n

An already crowded race has become all about Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you\u2019ve got somebody spending $100 million on TV and mailers and everything else, obviously you’re forced to talk about him,\u201d Jones said in an interview with Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

As Jackson has upended the governor\u2019s race, he\u2019s also taking up so much of voters\u2019 attention that Georgia Republicans in other races are worried about their own chances of breaking through.<\/p>\n

Voters and strategists alike say they just can\u2019t avoid Jackson’s presence anywhere, not even at home. His media blitz is alarming fellow Republicans, half a dozen of whom told Blue Light News that Jackson is endangering Republicans in down ballot races \u2014 and a critical Senate contest \u2014 that will likely be decided by razor-thin margins.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown the ballot, it’s going to be extremely difficult for candidates for the other constitutional offices to get any kind of media attention, which creates a scenario where many of these races are essentially crapshoots,\u201d said Spiro Amburn, a longtime Georgia Republican strategist and statehouse official who is neutral in the race.<\/p>\n

\"Jackson\u2019s<\/p>\n

A Georgia-based Republican operative involved with the governor’s race suggested that Jackson is partly the reason for the GOP\u2019s messy Senate primary<\/a> because the candidates are struggling to \u201cget traction\u201d and make headway with paid media. Another GOP strategist said Jackson\u2019s spending, particularly in a primary, has far surpassed any precedent: \u201cI watched 30 minutes of TV the other day and had six Rick Jackson ads. It’s just on a different level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s sucked up so much oxygen that it’s really hard for any other Republican to operate right now,\u201d said a third GOP strategist involved in races up and down the ballot in the state.<\/p>\n

Jackson, in an interview, said he had not considered how his spending might be affecting other races and said he\u2019d ultimately help them across the finish line when he\u2019s the GOP nominee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a lot of money on TV, it\u2019s going to raise the bar for everybody. Unfortunately, it’s just a necessity,\u201d he said unapologetically. Speaking with Blue Light News after the Banks County event last week, Jackson shrugged off any concerns about his money and said he will do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I win, that’s when I’m done,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rick Jackson\u2019s money vs. Burt Jones\u2019 Trump endorsement<\/h4>\n

Perhaps the biggest target in the face of Jackson\u2019s onslaught is Jones, who used to lead the governor\u2019s race by most standards. He now finds himself neck and neck with the billionaire in recent polling<\/a>, as Jackson sells himself as another Trump-aligned candidate \u2014 even though he and the president don\u2019t have much of a close, personal relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s not portraying himself as what he really is,\u201d Jones told Blue Light News. \u201cHe’s not this hard-nosed conservative guy. He is somebody who’s dependent on state and federal contracts to make his living, and he’s trying to make himself out to be some outsider and doesn\u2019t know how the political process works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

Other Jones allies have been leaning hard into attacking Jackson as a big-spending outsider. At a fish fry last week in rural Atkinson County, state Rep. James Burchette encouraged voters to question why a candidate would spend so much money to \u201ctake control of the state of Georgia.\u201d Sen. Russ Goodman warned that \u201call this stuff that you see in the mailbox \u2014 it\u2019s nothing but a bunch of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even with Jackson\u2019s big-spending approach, Trump\u2019s stamp of approval still holds immeasurable power with the MAGA base.<\/p>\n

The president has reaffirmed his support for Jones: \u201cAll these guys are coming in now loaded up with some money. Who the hell knows how much money he’s got? But Burt Jones has been here and been with you and been with me right from the beginning,\u201d the president said at an event in Rome, Georgia in February.<\/p>\n

Parked outside the fish fry, Jones\u2019 campaign bus was emblazoned with that reminder: \u201cTrump Endorsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jackson is betting on voters like Bruce Brooker, a 72-year-old farmer from Atkinson County: intrigued by Jackson, but ultimately sticking with the lieutenant governor out of loyalty to the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would probably vote for [Jackson] if Trump had not endorsed Burt,\u201d he said. \u201cI like the fact that he started with nothing and crawled and climbed through like any. He knows what hard work is. I’m not being critical of him. I admire him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson, meanwhile, is trying to prove his MAGA credentials to Georgia Republicans to siphon off enough of Jones\u2019 voters to win. Over in Homer, where Jackson was addressing a crowd of about 200 voters at the country club, attendees peppered him with questions about his relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n

\"At\"Jackson<\/p>\n

One man in the crowd asked Jackson to explain why he had donated to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) \u2014 a longtime Trump critic who voted to impeach the president during his first term. Another questioned why he had only donated to the president after<\/i> the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like JD Vance and Marco Rubio, I will admit I was late to the Trump Train. There’s no question about it,\u201d Jackson responded. \u201cBut I gave a million dollars to him. That’s not an insignificant concept of supporting somebody.”<\/p>\n

The non-MAGA candidates say they have an opening<\/h4>\n

Others in the governor\u2019s race who are less interested in wooing the MAGA masses \u2014 including Raffensperger, who has rebuked efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Attorney General Chris Carr \u2014 are not as concerned about Jackson undercutting their campaigns.<\/p>\n

Carr campaign spokesperson Julia Mazzone said in a statement that Jackson\u2019s entry into the race \u201cdevastates Burt Jones\u2019 campaign, but it does not change the fundamentals for us.\u201d The attorney general has a long-shot chance of advancing out of the primary, however, as polls show him in a single-digit fourth place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A March 30 memo penned<\/a> by Raffensberger\u2019s campaign manager and obtained by Blue Light News claimed that the Jackson-Jones cagefight has created an opening for other candidates to lead on policy substance. The secretary has avoided injecting himself into the MAGA m\u00eal\u00e9e, instead keeping his profile comparatively low as he travels the state to speak with voters.<\/p>\n

\"Georgia<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my own lane, and I feel good where we are,\u201d Raffensberger said in an interview. \u201cWe travel all over the state, reaching voters, talking to people, making sure that people understand my message is about making sure we keep Georgia affordable and safe, and I’m best positioned to do that at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, Raffensperger has a history of overcoming Trump-backed challengers<\/a> and cruising to a general election victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to be in the runoff,\u201d he added, deflecting any and all concerns with finality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOMER, Georgia \u2014 The last few players of the day were finishing their rounds at the Chimney Oaks Golf Club when a steady wind picked up by the practice putting green. Pin flags bent to a near snap. A sleek helicopter slowly descended onto the manicured lawn. Rick Jackson had arrived. The billionaire health care […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}