Tree species
Both candidates bear-hugged Trump. 06.16.26 | 9:24 pm
Updated 06.16.26 | 10:10 pm
After a tight May primary election that saw Trump-endorsed Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones leading billionaire Rick Jackson by a mere six percentage points, Jackson turned the tables and prevailed in Tuesday’s runoff election. Unlike the GOP Senate race, which saw an ultra-MAGA election denier face off against a conservative election affirmer (who still wanted to make it more difficult for Georgians to vote), both Republican hopefuls for governor profess to believe that the election was stolen. A win for either candidate in November could mean a blow to democracy in the purple, southern state. With 92% of the vote counted just after 10 p.m. ET, Jackson had 52.7% to Jones’ 47.3%.
Six years ago, Jones tried to help Trump steal the 2020 election from voters when he signed up to be an alternate elector and oppose the legal results. And during his campaign, he urged the Justice Department to monitor Georgia’s election, a request that holds particularly ominous weight after the FBI’s raid on Fulton County’s election hub. Tripling down on his opposition to free and fair elections, Jones also proposed the logistical nightmare of switching the election to paper ballots two weeks before the May primary.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – MAY 19: Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson speaks at his election night watch party on May 19, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. Jackson will face Lieutenant Governor of Georgia Burt Jones in a runoff for the Republican nomination to succeed outgoing Governor Brian Kemp.
(Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
Though Jones ultimately earned Trump’s stamp of approval, Jackson fought hard to get it. The first-time candidate has been less direct about the results of the 2020 election compared to Jones. Jackson, however, has attacked secretary of state and losing gubernatorial candidate Brad Raffensperger for defending Georgia’s presidential election in 2020 from Trump. During a campaign event, he reportedly lamented the state’s 2020 election administration.
“That was totally ridiculous what happened in 2020, and our people really let us down,” Jones said.
Raffensperger finished a distant third with just 15% of the vote in the May primary. Jackson will have to beat Democratic candidate and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won her party’s gubernatorial primary decisively. Like Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Bottoms cast Jones and Jackson as two of the president’s puppets
“They don’t see Trump’s reckless policies as a problem, they see them as a playbook,” she said at an Atlanta event in May. “We already know we’re running against Trump’s do-boys.”
Layla A. Jones
is a reporter for TPM in Washington, D.C., with experience covering government and economic policy, race, culture, and history.
She has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Billy Penn, WHYY, NPR, and the Philadelphia Tribune, and participated in the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University. She attended Temple University for undergrad.
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