Rick Jackson defeats Burt Jones to win Georgia GOP gubernatorial nomination, CBS News projects

Rick Jackson, the billionaire healthcare executive who grew up in poverty and spent time in Atlanta’s public housing projects, has won the Republican runoff for Georgia governor, CBS News projects.

Jackson is projected to have defeated Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to claim the GOP nomination on Tuesday.

Jackson’s victory ends one of the most contentious Republican primary battles Georgia has seen in years, a race that produced two lawsuits, a defamation claim, and a mobile billboard circling metro Atlanta.

The self-described conservative outsider entered the race in February 2026 and quickly reshaped the contest, pledging up to $50 million of his own money to the campaign and spending more than any other candidate in the field. According to advertising intelligence company AdImpact, Jackson’s campaign and allied spending totaled more than $50 million on television ads alone heading into the runoff.

Jackson built his campaign around a compelling personal story: growing up in poverty, moving through five foster homes and 13 schools, and living in Atlanta’s Techwood Homes projects before building Jackson Healthcare into a company that operates in all 50 states, serves more than 20 million patients annually, and generates more than $3 billion in revenue.

Attorney General Chris Carr endorsed Jackson after finishing fourth in the May primary. Carr praised Jackson as a “successful businessman and political outsider” who would “build on Brian Kemp’s legacy.”

In the days before the runoff, Jackson secured another high-profile endorsement from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Jones entered the runoff as the frontrunner, backed by President Trump, who joined him on a tele-rally two weeks before the May primary and has endorsed him since August 2025. Trump noted that Jones was the first member of the Georgia State Assembly to endorse him for president. Jones, a sixth-generation Georgian and former University of Georgia football letterman, has served as Georgia’s 13th lieutenant governor since 2022 and spent more than a decade in the State Senate.

The race between the two men turned sharply negative. Jackson sued Jones in federal court, arguing that a Georgia campaign finance mechanism known as a leadership committee gave Jones an unconstitutional fundraising advantage. A federal judge temporarily blocked Jones’ leadership committee, which had accumulated roughly $15.9 million, nearly five times the amount in his regular campaign account, from raising or spending money while the legal challenge played out.

Jackson also filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones in Fulton County Superior Court after Jones’ campaign alleged on social media that Jackson had made his fortune recruiting for Planned Parenthood and helping doctors perform transgender procedures on minors. Jackson called the allegations knowingly false and deliberately timed to damage him among conservative voters as polling showed the race tightening. Jones’ campaign did not back down, circulating a mobile billboard in metro Atlanta and launching a website attacking Jackson’s business background.

Despite the attacks, Jackson held on.

Both candidates had staked out similar policy ground, pledging to cut taxes, support law enforcement, fight illegal immigration, and oppose what they describe as woke ideology in schools. The policy overlap meant the race was decided more on biography, money, and political allegiance than on issues.

Jackson will now face the Democratic nominee, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, in the November general election.