The race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination has been a boring spectacle. There are an unusually high number of undecided voters for a race with three candidates already well-known and previously elected candidates campaigning.
The outcome seemed foreordained in Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ favor as President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate. Then, just recently, the race got exciting.
The governor of Georgia is, these days, generally decided in the Republican Primary. Democrats have not had much luck at statewide offices in the past two decades, until a specially set election for the Public Service Commission held in an off-off year election that coincided with municipal races.
Democrats have privately fretted that Chris Carr might become the Republican nominee. The attorney general is one of the sharpest minds in government, but his defense of Georgia’s 2020 election has turned off both Donald Trump and Trump’s supporters.
Some had speculated Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, even more hated by Trump and his supporters than Carr, could rough up Jones enough for Carr to sneak up the middle. In a very nasty primary, sometimes the nice guy gets rewarded as voters tire of the two attacking each other.
Two Trump supporters with a lot of money to spend
Credit: Erick Erickson
Credit: Erick Erickson
On Feb. 4, health care executive Rick Jackson entered the race, and that has changed everything.
As one former statewide elected Republican told me, “The only thing worse than Burt losing would be Burt winning, and now we have a real race.” That needs to be unpacked a bit.
The lieutenant governor is widely liked on a personal level, but on a professional level some of his Republican colleagues have whispered they think Jones is not really interested in the job so much as the title. And some Republicans have cast doubts on Jones’ integrity and hold the perception he has tried to use his position to steer business toward his family. That will be a very obvious Democrat attack line in a general election.
Ironically, those who cast doubts on the lieutenant governor’s integrity, in part because of his family money, do not have the same objections to Rick Jackson, a billionaire.
Much of that comes from two things. First, Jackson came out of the Techwood projects and is a self-made man. Second, Jackson has been a major donor to conservative causes and philanthropic endeavors across the state.
Jackson has now taken a race that should have gone to Jones and placed a second man in the lane Jones had to himself — a Trump supporter with a lot of money to spend.
Strategist Brian Robinson, well-known in Republican circles, jumped from Carr’s gubernatorial to Jackson’s shortly after Jackson entered the race. Carr and Raffensperger, who already had a difficult race ahead of them, now have an exponentially harder race.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Georgia typically doesn’t elevate lieutenant governors
Jones can say two things Jackson cannot. He knows how to win statewide and he has Trump’s endorsement. The attacks on his integrity and fitness for the top post can, should he play his cards right, be completely overshadowed by “I’m Donald Trump and I endorse Burt Jones.” Combined with an aggressive ad campaign, both defining Jackson negatively and himself positively, could help Jones get undecided voters off the fence.
Jackson hopes to neutralize Trump’s endorsement of Jones by pointing out the millions of dollars he gave Trump. Perhaps those millions also keep Trump from aggressively campaigning for Jones. Jackson can also contrast his money from Jones’.
Jackson’s father abandoned him when Jackson was 9 months old. He was raised by an alcoholic mother until placed in foster care. He eventually ran away from home, never went to college, and started a business that has made him billions. He is the sort of Trump success story many people like these days.
One thing is for sure now. We have a race. Jackson makes it exciting. Jones is already attacking Jackson for his company hiring staff for Planned Parenthood. Jackson is attacking Jones as lazy. Carr and Raffensperger can just sit back now and raise money while the two front-runners beat each other up and hope for an opening, if nothing else, from voter exhaustion. The Republicans have a race.
Georgia typically does not elevate lieutenant governors to governor. Of the 13 lieutenant governors, only Marvin Griffin, Ernest Vandiver and Zell Miller, jumped to the top office. Lester Maddox famously failed to jump back into the Governor’s Mansion from the lieutenant governor’s office. Pierre Howard, Mark Taylor and Casey Cagle never won voters’ trust to make the jump at all.
Should Jackson be the nominee, his philanthropy, backstory and business acumen should play well with independent voters. Should Jones be the nominee, he will now be more aggressively pushed and pressed than he would be without Jackson. That will make him a better, more refined candidate. But it was once Jones’ race to lose, and Jackson’s entry increases the odds he could do just that. Historically, Georgia is rarely kind to its lieutenant governors.
Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated “Erick Erickson Show,” heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on WSB radio. He is also now an opinion contributor to the AJC.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
