Rick Jackson wins Georgia GOP governor defeating Trump-backed Burt Jones

ATLANTA, Ga. — President Donald Trump's endorsement was not enough to raise Lt. Georgia's Burt Jones to win Tuesday night's ballot box contest for the Republican presidential nomination of the southeastern state.

Jones lost to billionaire businessman Rick Jackson in the GOP election for governor of Georgia, the Associated Press reported, in the race to replace Gov. Brian Kemp.

Jackson, who has spent more than $100 million of his own money, will now face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in the Biden administration, in the fall general election. Bottoms avoided a runoff by winning the majority of votes as he topped six others in last year's Democratic gubernatorial election.

Jackson was promoted in the last stage before the runoff election by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a hotshot from Texas.

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Jackson, who introduced his own gubernatorial campaign in February and who broke records for his campaign spending, told Fox News Digital on Sunday that he would “do whatever it takes” to win the general election.

Throughout his campaign, Jackson said Trump inspired him to run.

“I just thought, you know, if you had someone doing business solutions in the state of Georgia, just like Trump is in the United States, I felt like I would have a big impact in the state of Georgia, so that was one of the reasons I wanted to get in. I was inspired by President Trump,” Jackson told Fox News Digital last month.

And he has repeatedly emphasized that, like Trump, he is an outsider and a businessman. “I'm going to be Trump's favorite governor because we're similar in how we do business and how we handle problems, and I want to do exactly in Georgia what he's doing in the federal government,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday.

Jackson has been largely unknown to Georgia voters for the past few months, but thanks to a flurry of ads, his story of building a business empire despite growing up in foster care and not being able to afford college is well known in the Peach State.

And Jackson highlighted his outsider credentials, saying that voters “can see someone like Trump, not just an official. And from that point of view, I think having an outsider is what our people want.”

Cruz joined Jackson at a pre-race rally campaign.

“Rick has an extraordinary record, an extraordinary life story. And I think he has a chance to win. And the stakes are very high. This election is a battleground for the whole country. We can't afford to lose Georgia,” Cruz told Fox News Digital.

While Cruz endorsed Jackson on Friday, he also supported South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is facing a lawsuit this week against Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette supported by Trump.

Asked if he was trying to put daylight between himself and the president in his campaign, Cruz quickly responded, “No. Not far….The president and I agree on most races. What I try to do in every race is recommend a strong candidate who can win. And I usually get into races late at a time when my support​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Jones, on the eve of Cruz's visit, took aim at Jackson.

“You keep bringing in these foreign senators, and I'd like to get the president's endorsement,” he said. “He will have to go out of the country to get support. We are putting all our things in context.”

And Jones has repeatedly questioned whether his opponent supports the president, pointing to Jackson's past donations to Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans as evidence that he is not aligned with the party's MAGA wing.

Lt. Gov. Georgia's Burt Jones has touted his support for President Donald Trump in his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the key southeastern battleground state. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“He wasn't honest about who he was. He wasn't honest about who he was behind,” Jones alleged. “Actually, you know, you're pretending to be something you're not.”

Jackson backtracked, saying the attack was “just a lie.”

Jones and Jackson were the two front-runners in a crowded and competitive GOP primary, which included state Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Because no candidate exceeded 50%, Jones and Jackson advanced to a runoff.

Jones, former captain of the University of Georgia football team, oil magnate and heir to the Jones Petroleum Company, served as a member of the state legislature before winning election in 2022 as lieutenant governor. A staunch supporter of Trump, he was endorsed by the president last August.

“He and I have a long relationship — a friendship — and I've always been a big supporter of his, and he's a big supporter of mine,” Jones said last month in an interview with Fox News Digital as he pointed to Trump.

And he repeatedly demonstrated the president's approval during the first and second campaigns.

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Kemp made the last-minute endorsement on Sunday, backing Jones. And at an event Monday morning, Kemp explained that his job is “to make sure we have the best people at the top of the ticket who can win in November and you know, that's why I'm supporting Burt Jones for governor.”

“If you think about the direction of the state, the good things we've been able to do, I think you're very qualified to take the state forward,” Kemp said. And he warned of “the consequences of not winning, like we're going to go the way of Virginia, New York, California, we can't do that.”

Longtime GOP Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, right, allows Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the gubernatorial runoff, Atlanta, Georgia on June 15, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Even though he was not on the ballot, Trump's hold on the GOP was facing another key test in Georgia.

The president's brute force has been on display in the GOP primaries over the past six weeks, with candidates ousting incumbents in statewide contests in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.

But Trump's support nationally and in the Republican primaries took off two weeks ago when his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Representative Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to replace Gov.

Feenstra was cut short by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and political strategist who once supported the political wings of MAHA – an acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement associated with Trump's Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservation organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

Zach Lahn raises his fist in celebration after defeating his primary opponent in the Iowa GOP primary race on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Zach Lahn for Governor via Facebook)

Trump resurfaced last week, as the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary candidate, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who finished first in a crowded field and won one of the two tickets in the nomination race.

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Meanwhile, Trump's longtime supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham, won the majority of votes in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing serious challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who was targeting the congressman over his support for the war on Iran. Lynch was supported by some MAGA leaders who were critical of the president.