Billionaire businessman Rick Jackson won the Republican primary runoff in Georgia’s race for governor, NBC News projects, defeating President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
Jackson, a healthcare executive and first-time candidate who poured more than $100 million of his own money into his campaign, will face Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in the November general election in the battleground state.
With most of the expected vote tallied, Jackson led Jones 53% to 47%.
The contest, which went to a runoff after neither Jackson nor Jones won 50% of the vote in the May 19 primary, boiled down to a fierce battle for the MAGA base.
For Jackson, that took on the form of comparing himself in ads and on the stump to Trump, painting himself as a political outsider — even though he didn’t have Trump’s official support. For Jones, that meant leaning heavily into highlighting Trump’s “complete and total endorsement.”
But ultimately, the support from Trump — which first came in August and was reiterated in tele-rallies and social media posts — wasn’t enough. Jones is only the second Trump-backed candidate to lose a Republican primary for governor this election cycle as he has sought to put his stamp on the party across the country.
An eleventh-hour endorsement from outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp on Sunday night, days after early voting had closed, also failed to lift Jones to victory.
During his victory speech in Atlanta, Jackson leaned into his personal story, highlighting how he overcame fleeing abusive parents and living in the state foster care system.
“I know what it’s like to feel like nobody sees you, especially the elite and the powerful,” Jackson said. “When you grow up the way I did, you never forget where you came from. You never forget the families who are working harder than ever, but still falling behind.”
He also took aim at Bottoms, saying that his general election opponent “would be an absolute disaster for Georgia.”
Meanwhile, Jones said in his concession speech that, “the sun will come up tomorrow,” adding that “there is a life after politics.”
Neither candidate mentioned Trump or Kemp in their speeches.
After Jackson unexpectedly jumped into the race in February — six months after Jones did — Jackson pummeled Georgia’s airwaves with ads.
Jackson spent nearly three times as much on ads as Jones did since the beginning of the year and nearly four times as much since the initial primary last month, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.
One cast Jackson as “the straight-talking, Trump-supporting self-made outsider.”
“Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians,” Jackson said in another ad.
In interviews ahead of Tuesday’s runoff, many Georgia voters said his having a background and a style that were similar to Trump’s helped sway them down the stretch to vote for Jackson.
Jackson was also endorsed by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who held campaign events with him on the eve of the runoff.
“Rick’s rich,” Cruz said Monday. “Rick doesn’t have to do this. He could sit back and play golf all day long and never have to enter this fray.”
While Cruz’s endorsement puts him at odds with Trump, he hinted at Jackson’s similarities with the president. “An outsider, a businessman. I don’t know anyone in politics like that,” Cruz said.
And Monday afternoon, Donald Trump Jr. praised Jackson on X as being among “the patriots building up MAGA and an America First economy.” He stopped short of formally endorsing Jackson but said that regardless of who won the primary, it would be a “victory for MAGA.”
In Georgia’s Senate race, Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Mike Collins, defeated former football coach Derek Dooley in the Republican primary runoff.
Trump’s continued fixation on the 2020 election also loomed over the GOP gubernatorial primary in Georgia, which initially also included Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and state Attorney General Chris Carr.
Jones was on the alternate slate of presidential electors who cast votes for Trump at the state Capitol after an official tally confirmed Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Raffensperger rejected Trump’s plea to “find” more votes in Georgia after the election, while Carr repeatedly said there was no widespread voter fraud in the state, earning the wrath of Trump. (Carr later endorsed Jackson after he didn’t advance to the runoff.)
In a tele-rally Thursday night, Trump lauded Jones for being a “fanatic when it came to election fraud.”
“He battled very strongly, tooth and nail, frankly, for the election integrity in your state,” Trump said on the call.
Jackson’s race against Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta who also served in the Biden administration, will be one of the marquee governor’s races this fall. Even as Georgia has emerged as a key battleground in recent federal elections, the state’s voters last elected a Democratic governor in 1998.
