Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is criticizing rival Rick Jackson’s marketing campaign spending because the billionaire breaks state data in the ultimate stretch of a good runoff for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
“Rick Jackson is everywhere – spending over $100 million trying to buy our vote,” says a brand new ad from Jones’ marketing campaign, that includes AI-generated imagery of voters recoiling at Jackson’s omnipresent picture. “But Georgia is not for sale.”
Jackson, a former healthcare govt, has leveraged his private fortune to elbow into the race, dropping tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on adverts and mailers to position himself in entrance of voters. It was sufficient to garner him roughly a 3rd of the vote in the first in May, forcing Tuesday’s runoff with Jones to resolve who will face Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic former mayor of Atlanta, in November.
But whether or not Jackson can persuade Georgia’s Republican voters to again him towards Jones, President Donald Trump’s chosen candidate in the race, stays unclear — with Tuesday’s election providing the newest check of whether or not multimillionaire and billionaire political outsiders can translate their enterprise experience into poll field victories at a time when affordability is high of thoughts for a lot of Americans.
Jackson deflects questions on his wealth with a rags-to-riches story – rising up in deep poverty, the kid of a damaged marriage biking by foster properties, working away and beginning a profitable enterprise profession. And whereas he’s acknowledged “legitimate concern” about his marketing campaign spending, Jackson argues that “money cannot buy this election, I’m gonna have to earn it.”
“The question is, do you want money that’s been buying other people, through special interest groups, and donors, and so forth? Or somebody that’s spending hard-earned money in order to make a difference? Because I can’t be bought,” Jackson told ABC affiliate WJCL.
Jackson completed simply 6 factors behind Jones in the primary spherical of the GOP main final month, beating out well-known Georgia officers like Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr — a outstanding displaying for a candidate who solely entered the race in February.
“He’s gone from 0% name recognition to, he got a third of the vote in the primary,” mentioned Charles Bullock, a professor of political science on the University of Georgia.
Entering the weekend, Jackson had given his marketing campaign greater than $100 million and ranked because the second-biggest advertiser of the 2026 election cycle, breaking Georgia gubernatorial marketing campaign data whereas spending $90 million on promoting, based on the monitoring agency AdImpact. That’s produced greater than 380 distinctive adverts, per AdImpact information, producing greater than 450 million impressions.
Jones, a multimillionaire whose household discovered success in the petroleum trade, has additionally contributed to spiraling totals. He’s loaned his marketing campaign $25 million and has spent greater than $35 million on promoting – rating him third amongst particular person candidates to this point this cycle.
The state official has leaned closely on Trump’s endorsement, holding a tele-rally with the president this week. “It’s very important you get out and vote for Burt. He’s been with me from the very beginning,” Trump mentioned on the decision.
Here, too, Jackson has tried to leverage his cash, donating $1 million to the pro-Trump tremendous PAC MAGA Inc. a little bit over a month earlier than he launched his governor marketing campaign — although the president had already endorsed Jones final 12 months.
Bullock cautions that it “hasn’t worked out well” for a lot of rich, self-funding candidates in Georgia, recalling former Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s high-profile runoff loss in 2021 a 12 months after her appointment to the seat. He additionally pointed to the instance of Guy Millner, a multimillionaire businessman who ran twice for governor and as soon as for US senator as a Republican in the Nineties, shedding all three races.
“History has not been that you can make that transition in Georgia – maybe the explanation for Jackson is he’s willing to spend even more than they were,” Bullock mentioned.
In a press release to NCS, Jackson’s marketing campaign mentioned that “when you grow up the way Rick did, you never forget those who are still fighting. Rick will fight for all 11 million Georgians and make Georgia the most affordable state in the nation.”
And it dismissed the brand new advert from Jones’ marketing campaign focusing on Jackson’s spending: “reeks of a campaign that knows it is losing.”
While Jones and Jackson proceed to rack up huge spending in the Republican gubernatorial runoff, Bottoms gained the Democratic nomination outright in a crowded main subject final month.
The former Atlanta mayor turned Biden administration official has had a free hand to consolidate her assist and start her common election marketing campaign, partnering with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who faces his personal aggressive reelection this 12 months.
Democrats view the extended GOP runoff as a significant benefit, leaving whichever potential rival that emerges bruised and drained.
“We’re ready to face whichever out-of-touch Trump lackey emerges from the slugfest of a Republican runoff. Whether it’s Jackson or Jones, both candidates have spent the last four months beating each other up and talking about everything but the kitchen-table issues, while Keisha has relentlessly focused on lowering costs and creating opportunity for Georgians,” mentioned TaNisha Cameron, Bottoms’ communications director.
Jackson’s capability to proceed funding his marketing campaign is a wild card, although, and after initially committing $50 million to the election, he’s since revised estimates upward.
“I’ll spend whatever it takes to win this race,” he says in an ad launched final month.
A blended report for self-funded candidates
But it’s unclear whether or not cash alone can transfer the needle, as a number of costly self-funded campaigns in latest years have demonstrated.
“Self-funding a campaign can buy visibility, but it doesn’t necessarily buy votes,” mentioned Hilary Braseth, the chief director of transparency group Open Secrets. “History shows that even massive personal investments don’t guarantee success at the ballot box.”
Just a few examples performed out in the weeks main as much as the Georgia runoff.
In California, billionaire Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund founder turned Democratic activist, spent greater than $200 million on a gubernatorial campaign that failed regardless of urgent each doable monetary benefit – nonstop TV spots, influencer partnerships, billboards and cell ads.
It carried echoes of one other expensive miss: Steyer’s quixotic run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as a first-time candidate, costing greater than $300 million and failing to supply a single delegate. Steyer’s dedication in that race, nevertheless, was overshadowed by that of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent greater than $1 billion of his personal cash on a roughly 100-day marketing campaign.
Down the poll, progressive Saikat Chakrabarti far outspent rivals in California’s eleventh Congressional District, just for the previous Stripe engineer to complete in third place in the first. And again at house in Georgia, US Rep. Buddy Carter misplaced his Senate bid final month, failing to make the GOP runoff regardless of investing a number of million {dollars} of his personal cash into the marketing campaign.
At a time when affordability issues are paramount, the intensifying efforts of ultrawealthy candidates may also threat alienating the very voters they’re spending so lavishly to courtroom.
“Our data shows that voters are increasingly skeptical of ultrawealthy candidates who write their own checks. Of the 65 federal candidates who put more than $1 million of their own money into their races in 2024, only 10 won,” mentioned Braseth.
But different super-rich candidates like Jackson are hoping for higher outcomes. Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate, is the GOP nominee for governor of Ohio, contributing $25 million to his marketing campaign, whereas Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, inheritor to a well-known household fortune, has equally seeded his bid for a 3rd time period with $25 million.
And, in an upcoming check later this month, former Rep. David Trone, the founding father of Total Wine & More, is difficult incumbent Rep. April McClain Delaney for his outdated seat in Maryland’s sixth District, with the native titans spending a mixed almost $20 million on promoting in a protected Democratic district.