A newcomer in the Georgia gubernatorial race is leading a crowded field of Republican contenders, according to a new poll.
Healthcare executive Rick Jackson, who announced his candidacy last week, holds 24% support from likely GOP primary voters, according to the co/efficient poll. Up next is Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, viewed as the front-runner in the race with 16%. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger holds 9%, and state Attorney General Chris Carr holds 3%, with the poll notably finding 42% of voters remain undecided, roughly three months before the primary election. The poll of 1,123 voters had a margin of error of +/- 3.18%, and was conducted Feb. 8-9.
The development, touted by the Jackson campaign, comes after a previous Cygnal poll released on Monday found Jones leading with 22% support. Jackson followed at 16%, with Raffensperger at 10% and Carr at 7%. That poll of 600 voters had a margin of error of +/- 4%, and was conducted Feb. 5-6.
The latest poll favoring Jackson was conducted by Creative Direct, a firm that appears to hold ties to his campaign. According to Jackson’s Facebook page, the firm is backing Jackson’s campaign and is run by Travis Smith, a former partner at co/efficient.
“The ‘poll’ showing Rick Jackson jumping from 0 to 24 in under a week was conducted by the same firm running his campaign. The only person they’re fooling is Rick Jackson. We wish them the best of luck keeping the grift going until Rick and his family notice the surgery being performed on his wallet,” Kayla Lott, Jones’s communications director, told the Washington Examiner.
The field of GOP candidates vying to succeed outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) was largely considered set before Jackson launched his campaign on Feb. 3, upending the race’s dynamics. With his entrance, a four-way Republican contest will likely increase the probability of a runoff if no candidate captures more than 50% of the vote on May 19. If no candidate secures an outright majority in Georgia, the race will advance to a June 16 runoff election.
Jackson, who runs an eponymous healthcare company, has pledged to inject $50 million of his money into the race through a self-funded campaign.
In his opening pitch to voters last week, the unexpected newcomer framed himself as a “real-life” conservative outsider seeking to break up the political establishment “cartel.” Jackson has an ambitious tax-cutting plan that includes freezing property taxes and cutting the state income tax by 50% within four years. He also promised to “criminalize reverse discrimination” and pursue the removal of “woke ideology” from Georgia’s education system.
“Atlanta could be as big a swamp as Washington,” Jackson told supporters. “I don’t care what the insiders want, how much they beg or how much they give. I can’t be bought, and I won’t back down.”
His candidacy comes as the leading Georgia officials have largely coalesced around Jones, even quietly changing the rules to allow the Republican National Committee to support the lieutenant governor’s campaign.
“I can see a path to victory for all four of them right now,” Jason Shepherd, a former Cobb County GOP chairman who is backing Carr, told Politico. “But Burt Jones’ path to victory just got a lot harder” with Jackson’s entrance.
President Donald Trump also endorsed Jones, though Jackson has sought to appeal to the president’s base.
“If you want another career politician who will bow to the cartel, my opponents are for you. But if you want a governor who’s like President Trump, who will stand up to the radical left, the media, the bureaucracy, and anyone else that tries to take advantage of Georgians, then I’m your man,” Jackson said during his launch speech.
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Jones has sought to cast doubt on his opponent’s Trump credentials.
“Iron sharpens iron, so competition never has bothered me,” he told the Washington Examiner earlier this week. “It doesn’t change the fact that I’m the only Trump-endorsed candidate in the race.”