Rick Jackson Could Be The GOP’s Presidential Nominee For 2028

By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

Georgia businessman Rick Jackson may have done the unthinkable: defeat a sitting Lt. Governor Burt Jones who had the endorsement of both President Donald Trump and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. He showed he has the financial resources to compete. And he’s managed to simultaneously appeal to lower income as well as upper income voters. He very well could upset the Trump monopoly in two years and do a better job of appealing to the MAGA base than even a Trump or acolyte anointed by the President, should he win the Fall Election for Governor.

In 2025, Jackson was barely a passing thought for Georgia Republicans as they looked to maintain their continued control over the executive branch since 2003. Nobody was even thinking about this business executive. The “smart thinking” (mine as well) was that Lt. Governor Burt Jones would win a spot in the runoff with Trump’s backing (after all, the guy was Trump Elector in 2020). Then it would be a contest between Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for the second spot, likely to secure popular Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s endorsement. Then the runoff would be a repeat of the 2022 primary, where Kemp and allies won all of the statewide races, except the Jones Lt. Governor race.

I’ve seen enough cases where wealthy business individuals dump tons of money into a race and are lucky to even finish third in statewide contests across the country. But Jackson struck a chord with the GOP base in a way the others never did. Some of it came from his humble origins, a marked contrast with candidates who inherit their money and act like self-made individuals. The other came from the frustration many conservatives feel in the state. The party was ripe for an outsider.

Jones might have won had it not been for several missteps. First, there was breaking with Governor Brian Kemp in 2020 and 2022, who remains popular enough in the state. Second, there was the assumption that Trump’s endorsement would be enough was a mistake, especially as the President’s numbers plummet across the country, and even in the Peach State (Trump’s at -20 in Georgia). Jackson may have benefitted from not receiving Trump’s blessing. Finally, the endorsement of Kemp might have helped him win, but the fact that it came after a week of early voting. I heard that Jackson did much better with early voters than Jones’ performance on Election Day for the runoff. Jackson was smarter and used ads to show Kemp saying nice things about the outsider businessman long before the Jones people sought to make peace with Kemp.

Geography tells the tale of what happened in the gubernatorial runoff, according to the Associated Press News. Rick Jackson won it in the populated regions. In Cobb County, Jackson won more than 56 percent of the vote. In Fulton County, he took 60 percent of the vote. Gwinnett went 56 percent for him, while in DeKalb County, he took 58 percent of the vote. Jones did much better in the rural counties and places like Savannah and Macon, narrowly losing Columbus and Augusta. But the business dominated everything from Troup County and Coweta County, and other counties outside the state’s biggest city (Cherokee, Forsyth, etc.). In my county, I saw more lower income houses with Jackson signs than any other candidate, a good sign for the gubernatorial nominee.

Jackson still has to defeat former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and polls are likely to give her a lead, owing to the unpopularity of the party with Trump at the helm. But if Jackson outspends her to win in November, he would be very appealing to a party eager to distance itself from Trump and his family, as well as those close to him like J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio. Sure Jackson would still be a dark horse, but so was Jimmy Carter in 1976. And like that year, voters were eager to put the Nixon era in the rearview mirror. It’s why Carter won the nomination, and Governor Ronald Reagan almost unseated Nixon’s Vice-President Gerald Ford for the nomination, on his way to future history in America.

Jackson has to make sure he’s not too closely associated with Trump and not join with him at the hip as the President’s approval ratings crater nationwide, and with independents and rural voters as well as millennials. Then he needs to keep that independence as he shows himself to be a more palatable political figure to back in two years, should he win the Georgia Governor’s race later this year.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded).