Georgia Republican – Georgia’s Republican nomination for governor will be decided in a June 16 runoff between Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare executive Rick Jackson after the first primary advanced Trump-aligned candidates. The result sets up another test of President Trump’s p
The morning after Georgia Republicans went to the polls, the message was already clear: the governor nomination would not be settled in a single vote.
The race for the Republican nomination for governor is headed to a runoff, with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones set to face healthcare executive Rick Jackson on June 16. The two candidates who will advance are the ones most closely aligned with President Trump. pushing out two other Republicans who had opposed Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s outcome in the 2020 presidential election.
Jones, who has served as lieutenant governor since 2023, is endorsed by Trump. Jones has backed Trump since early in the president’s first run for president. Federal prosecutors investigated Jones for allegedly serving as a fake elector in a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. but declined to charge him in 2024.
Jackson will enter the runoff without Trump’s endorsement. Still. he has made a point of closely aligning himself with Trump. even comparing himself to the president as a fellow billionaire. Jackson owns a healthcare company. and since he entered the race at the beginning of this year. he and Jones have spent millions of dollars on TV attack ads against each other.
For Georgia Republicans, the primary became a direct measure of the strength of Trump’s endorsement—and the MAGA base—inside the state. Georgia was close in 2020: Trump lost the state by about 11,000 votes. Four years later, Trump won Georgia in 2024.
The stakes extend beyond one primary ballot. Georgia has a Republican-controlled state government and two Democratic U.S. senators. The outcome of the governor’s race. set to play out against the broader backdrop of November politics. could help shape the balance of parties in the Senate. Governor primary elections also function as a kind of temperature check for what each party’s voters are prioritizing.
The candidates who fell short—Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and state Attorney General Chris Carr—also ran on the Republican ticket for governor but did not win enough votes to advance to the runoff. Raffensperger and Carr took a less Trump-centric approach. Carr. in campaign ads. described himself as a “Brian Kemp Republican. ” after Georgia’s Republican governor. who has at times been at odds with Trump.
Raffensperger famously butted heads with Trump in 2020, when Trump asked him to “find” about 11,000 votes to help him win the state. Carr, as attorney general, had also supported the state’s vote results, which went to Joe Biden.
As Republicans awaited results on their governor nomination, voters were also waiting for outcomes in other races on the ballot. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff was unopposed for his party’s nomination as he runs for a second term in November.
On the Democratic side of the governor’s race. primary voters are choosing between former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. who is endorsed by former President Joe Biden; former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who was a Republican but became a Democrat; former state Sen. Jason Esteves; and former labor commissioner Michael Thurmond. The top vote-getters from that race can offer a window into the divide between moderate and progressive Democrats in Georgia.
Georgia’s primary results are still unfolding. but the Republican governor race has already turned into a two-person showdown—one endorsed by Trump. the other trying to occupy the same lane without it. In a state that flipped for Trump in 2024. and where the party’s internal lines are increasingly sharp. the runoff on June 16 will be the next test of how far those alignments can carry.
Georgia GOP governor primary runoff Burt Jones Rick Jackson Trump endorsement MAGA base Raffensperger Chris Carr June 16 Ossoff