Two Georgia election deniers advance to runoff for GOP nod in governor’s race

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson — both election deniers — are advancing to a runoff in the Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary race. 

They defeated Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who opposed President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.

The result means the GOP nominee for governor will be someone who has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 results, and, if elected, would pose a clear threat to fair elections in 2028 — when Georgia will again be pivotal — and beyond.

Jones is Trump’s handpicked, MAGA-aligned choice for governor, while Jackson has vied throughout the campaign for Trump’s favor, casting himself as further to the right than Jones. Both campaigned heavily on questioning or denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which in Georgia went for Joe Biden.

Trump has falsely claimed that the vote was rigged, and both Jones and Jackson have agreed with him throughout the race.

The two candidates ran multiple campaign ads attacking Raffensperger for his refusal to aid in Trump’s plot to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

When asked at a campaign stop whether he thought the 2020 election was stolen, Jackson said, “That was totally ridiculous what happened in 2020 and our people really let us down.”

At the time of the 2020 election, Jones was a state senator who joined the alternate slate of electors for Trump, in an effort to de-legitimize the certification of the vote for Biden. 

In one video that Jones posted on his Facebook page prior to the primary, Trump says from the Oval Office: “A great lieutenant governor and friend of mine, Burt Jones, is running for governor of Georgia, and you know I won Georgia by a lot … and so I just want to let you know that Burt Jones has my complete and total endorsement.”

On his campaign site, Jones attacked Raffensperger for rejecting Trump’s requests to overturn the 2020 election results, and for refusing to hand over voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

“In Georgia, as in much of the country, anyone who raised concerns about the 2020 election was mocked, dismissed, or accused of undermining democracy itself,” reads Jones’ campaign site. “Legitimate questions were treated as heresy. Skepticism was labeled extremism. And accountability was replaced with gaslighting.”

Jones also pushed to redistrict Georgia in light of the Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act last month, and prior to that applauded the FBI seizure of Fulton County’s 2020 election ballots when it happened.

Not one to be outdone, Jackson has attempted to burnish his MAGA credentials.

After the SCOTUS ruling, he helped pressure Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to schedule a special session to gerrymander the state congressional maps to eliminate majority-Black districts. 

“The legislature already needed a special session because Burt Jones put future Georgia elections at risk and failed to make our elections more secure,” Jackson said. “In light of today’s Supreme Court ruling, redrawing the maps must be added to the agenda.”

The winner of the Republican runoff will face in November former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won her primary election decidedly.