This Georgia county couldn’t pick a side in the GOP governor’s race

That result offers a window into the bitter runoff now unfolding between the rivals as early voting is underway.

The solid-red county of 51,000 sits at the crossroads of the most expensive gubernatorial primary in Georgia history — one that’s taking place after Democrats have already coalesced around former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as their nominee.

It sits just east of Hall County, where Jackson ran up some of his strongest margins in the region, and just south of several smaller counties that are the backbone of Jones’ support.

Both campaigns are now fighting over that middle ground, and interviews with more than a dozen voters here suggest the race is every bit as unsettled as the primary results,

Many expressed fatigue with the barrage of negative advertising and attacks between the Donald Trump-backed lieutenant governor and the wealthy business owner who has poured more than $93 million of his own fortune into the race.

“You can’t believe anything anymore. You don’t know what’s right or what’s wrong,” said Steve Gerrin, a retiree. “You just have to guess and go hope you got the lesser of two evils.”

Gerrin said he backed Jackson partly because of his outsider appeal and partly because of parallels he sees with the president.

“Trump does what he says he’ll do — or at least tries to,” he said. “If Rick had announced earlier, I bet he wouldn’t have gotten the president’s endorsement.”

Others were drawn to Jones — who is campaigning in the area Wednesday — because of his record in office and Trump’s unequivocal blessing.

“I’m a Trump man. I’m going to vote for who he endorsed,” said Keith Towe, a utility worker. “I like Trump’s policies and I know I’ll like Burt’s.”

‘Do the research’

The same tension that defined the primary still shapes the runoff.

Trump has maintained his unwavering support for Jones, issuing another endorsement message as early voting began. Jackson continues to cast Jones as a corrupt insider beholden to his family business interests, while Jones portrays Jackson as a late-to-the-bandwagon MAGA convert who can’t be trusted.

What’s changed is that the race is now a head-to-head contest after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr — who together accounted for about one-quarter of the vote — were both knocked out.

Raffensperger, the third-place finisher in last month’s primary who is loathed by many MAGA stalwarts, is not expected to endorse either candidate. But the roughly 15% of voters who backed him in the primary remain one of the biggest prizes in the runoff.

Carr has backed Jackson with unusual enthusiasm, recording ads and actively working to steer the 12% of voters who supported him toward the billionaire.

Also hovering over the race is Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has declined to endorse either candidate but is still a central figure in both campaigns.

Jackson is airing an ad featuring Kemp praising him as a “great supporter” and suggesting the race was ripe for a self-funding outsider. Jones, too, has highlighted his close working relationship with the governor and frequently points to Kemp’s record as a model.

“I wouldn’t throw stones at anything that the governor has done, because you always know where he is on things,” Jones said in an interview. “That’s probably the best thing about his leadership. There’s no guessing.”

Kemp reasserted his neutrality at a campaign stop this week, noting that he has said “good things about both of them.” Still, his silence in the runoff came up repeatedly with Habersham County voters, several of whom questioned whether it signaled trouble for Jones.

For Mike Bernadyn, that only added to the confusion.

“What I’ve learned about this race: You’ve got to do the research,” said Bernadyn, a part-time technical college instructor who moved to the area from Pennsylvania about six years ago. “I haven’t met one honest politician. I voted for Jackson. Why? Because he says if he doesn’t get the job done, he’s done.”

‘A new toy’

Habersham’s deadlock hints at how competitive the runoff could be.

During the primary, Jackson performed strongest in metro Atlanta and the surrounding exurbs, where his self-funded outsider message resonated with suburban Republicans.

Jones ran up big margins across rural Georgia, building statewide support that Jackson’s spending couldn’t overcome. The runoff is expected to hinge on that same geographic divide — with Jackson needing to expand his suburban edge and Jones looking to pad his rural leads.

Habersham County shows how those forces can collide in a single place: a largely rural area with pockets of second-home affluence, working-class communities and growing exurban pressures.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of ballot images from the Secretary of State’s office showed Jackson led Jones by about 3 percentage points across the northern parts of the county. Jones won in Demorest, Mount Airy and southern Cornelia. The two candidates were dead-even in unincorporated southeastern Habersham — 129 to 129.

Former state Rep. Terry Rogers, a longtime Jones ally who represented the area in the Legislature, said he was stunned by the countywide tie. He chalked it up in part to the wave of attacks aimed at Jones even before Jackson entered the race.

“You get hammered enough, it’s going to have an impact,” he said, adding that he felt Jones was gaining momentum. “It’s like a kid at Christmas with a new toy. The glitter starts to wear off after a while.”

But Jackson’s stronger-than-expected showing was powered by voters like Cindy Tanner, who said the Republican’s opposition to large-scale data center expansion helped win her support despite Trump’s endorsement of Jones.

“I voted for Trump. I like him,” she said with a shrug. “But just because Trump endorsed doesn’t matter to me. I’m voting for the person.”

Senior data editor Charles Minshew contributed to this report.