Georgia
Billionaire Rick Jackson shakes up Georgia’s governor race with a play for the MAGA base
It’s been a month since billionaire Rick Jackson unexpectedly entered the Republican primary for governor in Georgia.
He’s quickly shaken things up.
Jackson, a health care executive, is pumping millions of dollars of his own money into an already crowded race and aggressively courting supporters of Donald Trump — even though the president has backed a different candidate.
Prior to Jackson’s late entrance, the May 19 primary had seemed to be shaping up as a three-way race among Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is the Trump-endorsed front-runner, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and state Attorney General Chris Carr.
But after launching his campaign in early February with a pledge to spend at least $50 million, Jackson has vastly outspent his opponents on the airwaves and has rapidly seen dividends in some early public polling. He’s even leading in some of them, though most of those surveys also show a plurality of voters undecided.
It’s all scrambled the contest to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in the battleground state into a slugfest for MAGA voters as Jackson attempts to paint himself in the mold of Trump against a field of better-known rivals and maintain his early jolt of momentum.
“You can’t get into the race promising to spend $50 million and not see a significant impact, which is exactly what has happened,” said Katie Frost, an Atlanta-based Republican political strategist not currently working with any of the campaigns. “This effort means he thought there was an opening.”
Another X-factor in the race is that the primary would head to a runoff between the top two vote-getters if no one gets 50% of the vote — an outcome that is likelier now that it’s a four-way race.
Since Jackson’s Feb. 3 campaign announcement, he has spent nearly $16 million on ads, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact — almost six times as much as Jones and nearly twice the amount of the next closest spender in the race. An outside group called Georgians for Integrity, which has spent nearly $9 million over the same time span, has been running attack ads targeting only Jones for month.
During that period, Jones’ campaign has spent $2.7 million on ads, according to AdImpact, with a Jones-aligned outside group spending another $900,000. The Raffensperger campaign spent $12,000 on ads over the same time period, while Carr’s campaign dropped only $1,500.
Jackson’s ads have mostly leaned into introducing himself to voters, while also making overt comparisons between himself and Trump.
The spots with the most money behind them mostly feature him talking about his experience in his youth in the foster care system, after having fled abusive parents before becoming a business owner. He so draws on Trump’s background as a political outsider and businessman, while also taking a veiled jab at the experienced statewide officials he’s running against.
“Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians,” Jackson says in one TV ad. In another, Jackson casts himself as “the straight-talking, Trump-supporting self-made outsider” who “tells it like it is.”
Another ad — part of a much smaller buy — rips into Raffensperger, who as Georgia’s secretary of state rejected Trump’s plea to overturn the 2020 election results after Joe Biden won, accuses him of having “turned on his own kind” and invokes the word “Judas.”
Unlike Jackson’s other ads, which ran almost entirely in Georgia markets, this spot also ran in media markets in Washington, D.C., and West Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is located.
It’s part of a broader strategy, GOP operatives said, to flatter Trump while also not crossing him by going after his preferred candidate in Jones. At his campaign launch event, Jackson even descended to the stage in a glass elevator, drawing comparisons to Trump’s escalator entrance to announce his 2016 presidential bid.
“He clearly is trying to get the attention of the Trump administration and the president himself,” Frost said.
In an interview, Carr said Jackson’s entrance was more of an issue for Jones than him.
“It hasn’t changed things for me,” Carr said, “but it’s been disruptive and devastating to the lieutenant governor, because they are fighting for the same voter. The lieutenant governor’s whole pitch was, ’I’m going to have the most money and I’m going to have one endorsement, and that’s all I need.’ Well, that was a flawed argument.”
Jackson declined an interview request, but campaign spokesperson Mike Schrimpf further leaned into comparisons between Jackson and Trump.
“I think Republican primary voters were eager for a businessman and an outsider to enter the race, and Rick Jackson, like President Trump, is a businessman outsider,” he said. “This is their response to that message of being an outsider and fighting,” he added, referring to Jackson’s dent in recent polling.
Schrimpf declined to say whether the campaign’s strategy was to split Trump-aligned Republican voters in Georgia to force a runoff with Jones, noting only that, “that is not how I would think about it — the strategy is to appeal to all Republican primary voters.”
Jones declined to be interviewed, but campaign spokesperson Kayla Lott highlighted Trump’s endorsement, which the president doubled down on last month during a visit to a Georgia steel plant. Jones’ own ads have focused almost entirely on Trump’s endorsement.
“Trump-endorsed Lt. Governor Burt Jones is the only common-sense conservative in this race fighting for the issues Georgians care about,” Lott said in a statement. “Georgians have a clear choice — a Trump-endorsed proven workhorse with a record of results, or a bunch of Never-Trump RINOs pretending to be something they’re not.”
Despite Jackson’s early momentum, Georgia Republicans emphasized that it’s too early in the race to draw any lasting conclusions and that the state’s runoff system has produced unexpected results in recent election cycles.
For example, in the run-up to the Republican gubernatorial primary election in 2018, Kemp trailed his competitors in many major polls. But he managed to advance to the runoff, which he won with the help of a Trump endorsement and a secret recording that sank his opponent.
And Trump’s endorsements and big spending by self-funders haven’t always guaranteed victories in Georgia — a fact cited by both Carr and Raffensperger.
In 2022, former Sen. David Perdue, who partly self-funded his campaign, lost his gubernatorial primary challenge to Kemp, while Rep. Jody Hice failed to defeat Raffensperger in the secretary of state primary. Both Perdue and Hice were backed by Trump.
“We’ve had people that have had a lot of money. We’ve had people with a Trump endorsement — and they didn’t win,” Carr said in an interview, referring to both Jackson and Jones in the current race.
Carr said that “self-funders have a terrible win-loss record in the state of Georgia” and that he remained optimistic about his chances of advancing to a runoff. He added that Jackson has “totally cut the legs out from Lt Gov. Jones in this race.”
Raffensperger also said there will “probably” be a runoff. Asked about the attack ad from Jackson, Raffensperger said that “some of the folks in this race are just obsessed with the past, and I’m solely focused on George’s future.”
Welcome to the Daily Briefing. Here’s what’s breaking this morning:
Nicole Fallert here, wishing I were frolicking in this superbloom. Wednesday’s headlines begin with a Georgia special election and then we’ll talk about that Team USA World Baseball Classic loss.
Who will replace Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor, came in second among a field of more than a dozen candidates in Georgia’s special election on Tuesday to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in January after months of clashing with the president.
Retired Brigadier General Shawn Harris, one of just three Democrats on the ballot, topped the votes after consolidating most of his party’s support. But neither candidate received the required threshold under Georgia law of more than 50% to win outright. That means the two are headed for an April 7 runoff election.
Mississippi also had a primary election on Tuesday. See the results.
And this all begs the question: Can Trump run both a war and a midterm campaign at the same time?
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Something to talk about
Italy just upset USA baseball
Team USA suffered one of the most embarrassing losses in World Baseball Classic history, 8-6 to Italy in front of a stunned crowd at Daikin Park on Monday. Now, they must rely on Italy to beat Mexico on Wednesday night, or hope a tiebreaker works in their favor.
Before you go
Have feedback on the Daily Briefing? Shoot Nicole an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.
Georgia
With voting over, Georgia’s election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene could be test of Trump’s influence
Polls have closed in the Georgia 14th Congressional District special election to elect who will replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress.
The seat has been vacant since January, when Greene resigned following a monthslong public fight with President Trump over foreign policy issues and the release of documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. A week before she announced her plans to resign, Mr. Trump said he would support a primary challenge against her.
Twenty-two candidates filed to run for the seat, but the number dropped to 17 candidates — 12 Republicans, three Democrats, one Libertarian, and one independent — all of whom appeared on Tuesday’s ballot.
Among the top candidates are former District Attorney Clay Fuller, who was endorsed by Mr. Trump, former Republican state Sen. Colton Moore, and Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general who lost to Greene in the 2024 race for the seat.
Harris has raised more than $4.3 million for the race, with about $290,000 in the bank.
Greene has declined to endorse anyone in the race.
Georgia voters enthusiastic to choose their representative
Voters in Rome, Georgia, said they expect to return and vote in what is likely to be a runoff election because of the number of candidates.
“Too many people that think they’re politicians — some I know personally that has no experience, that, you know, Washington would just swallow them up like it does most people,” one voter said.
“What I look for in a candidate is tell me your policies. That’s the problem that I have with both sides today,” another voter said. “They attack each other, they hate each other, and they don’t ever get around to telling you what their actual policies are.”
Despite voters saying they planned to return to the ballot box, Floyd County Republican Vice Chair David Guldenschuh said the complicated schedule had party heads worried.
“There’s real fatigue out there, and I sense and feel for them,” he said.
Still, Guldenschuh said he doesn’t feel like the crowded field would hurt the GOP’s chance to hold the seat that Greene once occupied.
“I think that, you know, we have an unusual situation here. We all appreciated and loved Marjorie. And when she and Trump had the falling out, we still supported both here in this district, even though they weren’t getting along very well. And still are, as I understand,” he said. So I do know that this district is very solid conservative, and from Floyd County north, it’s really conservative. So I don’t see a big change going on now.”
Vincent Mendes, the chair of the county’s Democratic Party, expected Harris to get to the runoff, but said it would take effort to flip the seat.
“We will have to work our butts off to make him win if he gets to a runoff, but that’s how we should treat every single election,” Mendes said.
A local race with national implications
CBS News Political Director Fin Gómez said this special election is about more than just one seat in Congress. It’s being watched by politicians across the state and around the nation as an early indicator of where the Republican Party and its voters stand right now.
Gómez said this race could offer one of the first real tests of Mr. Trump’s influence within the party, with the president throwing his support behind Fuller.
The results could show whether the Republican base is still fully aligned with him after his rift with Greene.
The key question, according to Gómez: Does the president still have the influence that he did back in 2024?
“I do think that if Clay Fuller does well, even if he doesn’t clear the threshold that’s needed to avoid a runoff, I think that bodes well for the president, because that means Republican voters are still adhering to what the president says, and it shows the influence that that the president still has on the Republican Party, including in northwest Georgia,” he told CBS News Atlanta.
If another candidate, such as Moore, pulls off a win, it could signal the Republican base isn’t always following the president’s lead.
“If Fuller does not when I think it would surprise a lot of the Trump faithful who really adhere to who he supports in these type of elections, but if, let’s say, if it doesn’t go Fuller’s way and Moore picks off this win, I think what you are seeing is that the base might be a little more unpredictable, similar to what we saw perhaps in 2010.”
Special election marks start of busy campaign stretch
With how crowded the field is, it is very likely that this will be only the first step to choosing Greene’s replacement. Georgia’s special election rules require a candidate to win a majority of votes. If that threshold is not met, the top two candidates will go on to the April 7 runoff.
Whoever eventually wins the seat will serve out the rest of Greene’s term — a relatively short time in office. If they want to remain in the seat, they’ll have to run again in the May 19 party primaries. That race could possibly go to a party runoff, which would take place on June 16. The winners of the primaries will advance to the general election in November.
Last week, 10 Republicans, including Fuller and Moore, qualified to run in November’s election for a full two-year term. Harris also qualified, the sole Democrat who did in what has been rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.
Mr. Trump carried the 14th Congressional District with 68% of the vote in the 2024 election, with Greene receiving over 64%. Republicans want that rightward trend to continue in the district. Democrats are hoping that the potential GOP infighting and crowded field could help them secure a surprise electoral win, shrinking the already-narrow margins in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Republicans currently control 218 House seats to the Democrats’ 214.
People cheer for President Trump en route to his speaking engagement at the Coosa Steel Corporation on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga. Trump delivered remarks on the economy and affordability as the state started voting to replace the seat vacated by former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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ATLANTA — Voters in Northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes in the district’s special election on Tuesday night.
The election will test the weight of President Trump’s endorsement of one of the candidates in a crowded race. Some voters say the president’s choice is not who they think would best support the conservative MAGA movement championed by both Trump and Greene.
Greene resigned at the beginning of this year, leaving Georgia’s 14th Congressional District without representation in Congress — and slimming the GOP’s majority in the House — following a bitter split with Trump.
Greene rose to prominence over five years in office as a strong ally of Trump, bombastically attacking critics and pushing the MAGA movement’s “America First” policy. Yet the two had a very public clash after she pushed for the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene has also been sharply critical of Trump’s actions abroad, saying he has strayed from his promises to focus domestically.
With Trump now in the second year of his second term, other high-profile spats with key parts of his MAGA coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of other issues, including sweeping tariffs, immigration policy and more. More recently, rifts have emerged over the war with Iran.
Some, like Greene, argue that though Trump helped create the “America First” worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.
Most of the GOP candidates in the special election have said they want to focus on Trump’s priorities and the concerns of their district, rather than become headlines themselves — an approach they say Greene embraced in her public disputes with Democrats and even with members of her own party.
“The difference between Marjorie and I is I will not use the press to become a celebrity,” Republican Star Black said during a candidate forum on Feb. 16. “I will use the press to actually show what I have done — the accomplishments,”
Trump has endorsed Clay Fuller, a district attorney in northwest Georgia for the state’s Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. He emphasized his support last month during a visit to Rome, part of the state’s 14th District, where he held a rally to tout his administration’s economic policy.
Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior” at the event.
Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller (left) shakes hands with President Trump as he arrives on Air Force One at Russell Regional Airport on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga.
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“I really like him,” said rally attendee Jill Fisher. “I think he’s a strong candidate, seems like a very nice family man with some great values. And I think he’ll add a lot to Congress.”
Highlighting Fuller’s military service as an Air Force veteran, an ad for his campaign says, ” ‘America First’ is the story of his life.”
Fuller faces several other GOP candidates in the primary, including former state Sen. Colton Moore. Moore won elections for the state Legislature in the district before and is considered one of the most right-leaning lawmakers at the state level.
“I’m 100% pro-Trump,” Moore declared in his campaign announcement video.
He’s made a few headlines of his own. Last year, Moore was arrested for attempting to enter the House chambers in Atlanta to attend the State of the State address by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. Moore argued he had a constitutional right to enter the chamber. Moore had been banned from entering the chambers by the state’s Republican House Speaker Jon Burns for disparaging comments he made about a late Georgia lawmaker at his portrait unveiling.
Moore’s record matters for some GOP voters even more than Trump’s endorsement. Less Dunaway, 14th district voter, says he’s a strong supporter of Trump, but thinks Moore will do a better job carrying out the president’s agenda than Trump’s own pick.
“He actually knows what he’s doing,” Dunaway said of Moore. “He was a state representative, a state senator. He was the first one to fight the people over the 2020 election in Georgia.”
Moore was one of a group of GOP state lawmakers who called on lawmakers to investigate or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she charged Trump and others with trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, when Trump and his allies pushed baseless claims of widespread election fraud.
Fuller insists Trump made the right choice in supporting his bid.
“I think they’re looking for someone to carry President Trump’s banner, support his agenda, and fight for him on Capitol Hill,” Fuller told Georgia Public Broadcasting last month.
Still some Republicans who attended the February rally left undecided.
“I don’t just blindly follow what [Trump] says,” said Clay Cooper of Rome.
Still, Cooper said that Trump’s endorsement means he will give Fuller more thought. “[Fuller is] someone that [Trump] thinks aligns very much with his messaging, with his actions, so that certainly weighs in,” Cooper said.
Unlike a partisan primary, all the candidates — Republicans, Democrats and third party candidates — will be on the same ballot for voters in the special election. If no one gets over 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters regardless of party will advance to a runoff on April 7.
Follow the results below as polls close on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
NPR’s Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
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