Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson ventured into deep-blue DeKalb County on Friday for his first campaign event of the general election as the billionaire healthcare executive seeks to widen his audience ahead of November.
Jackson diverted from his earlier red-meat messaging, pledging that if elected he would work to represent both Republican and Democratic voters.
“We need (to win) this election because we need to keep conservative,” he said. “But you need to understand I don’t believe that God sent Jesus here to save Republicans or Democrats — it’s everybody.”
Jackson was unknown to Republican voters just four months ago when he launched his surprise campaign for governor. But he poured more than $110 million of his own money into the race, defeating Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a runoff even though President Donald Trump had endorsed him.
Jackson campaigned as a close ally of Trump, adopting his hard-line immigration stance in an ad warning that people living in Georgia illegally would be “deported or departed.”
Speaking Friday at the Monterrey Mexican Restaurant on Buford Highway, Jackson said that his “focus has been criminal illegals,” adding that it’s a matter of whether or not someone has broken a law.
“And if ICE (U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) wants to do something, we’re going to support them. Period,” he said.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Jackson’s comments came as new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows more than 40% of new Georgia residents between 2020 and 2025 are Hispanic.
Jackson will need voters outside of the Republican base to win against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor. Jackson said he plans to make an effort to reach even the most loyal Democratic voters.
“The Democrats and Republicans, I’m going to look at what I can do to help them be successful,” he said. “You can’t get things done unless you bring people along.”
But Jackson is not distancing himself from Trump, comparing himself to the president as a political outsider with a business background.
“I will be Trump’s favorite governor, because I’m going to do business and we need a good relationship with the Trump administration,” he said.
The Republican primary fractured the party during a brutal campaign highlighted by personal attacks. Trump and Gov. Brian Kemp both endorsed Jones in the runoff — a rift that Democrats are hoping to exploit.
Credit: Riley Bunch
Credit: Riley Bunch
After Bottoms stunned her rivals by winning the primary election without a runoff, she quickly teamed up with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in hopes of getting an early edge over Republicans by presenting a unified ticket.
Bottoms was quick to attack Jackson less than 24 hours after he won the Republican primary, calling him “slick Rick” and slamming him as a mouthpiece for Trump.
“Rick Jackson has said that if he is elected, he will be Donald Trump’s favorite governor,” she said at her first general election campaign event in Commerce last week. “Is that what we want?”
But the Bottoms campaign is also up against a new harsh reality: taking on a self-funded billionaire with seemingly unlimited resources that — even before the runoff — were tapped to slam her record as mayor. When asked last week if that changes her strategy, Bottoms responded: “not at all.”
“While the Republicans have had this nasty, bruising fight on their side, trying to tear each other down and curry favor with Donald Trump,” she said, “we’ve been talking about the issues that matter to people.”
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