Forget Donald Trump

Rick Jackson wants voters to forget Donald Trump

Gregory Svirnovskiy

As Rick Jackson barnstormed around Georgia on election eve, he kept emphasizing how he’ll continue the legacy of outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp — while avoiding mention of President Donald Trump.

Amidst stiff national headwinds, Jackson is looking to localize the governor’s race as much as possible in his swing state.

“In Georgia, a governor makes decisions every day that affect your life. And every day, our lives have been better for the last 24 years, but especially for the last four years,” he told voters at a Canton, Ga., restaurant on Monday morning. He then offered a veiled nod to voters’ fury at the president: “No matter what has happened in Washington, through two different presidents.”

“At the end of the day, a governor cannot control what happens at the national level,” said Garrison Douglas, spokesperson for Jackson. “All he can control is what happens at the state level and how we respond to those national and world events. And that’s what he’s talking about.”

Through two events Sunday and Monday – his major closing rally and a breakfast — the closest Jackson came to mentioning the president was when he credited Kemp for the $4 billion Audi plant Trump announced in a Perry, Ga., rally in late October.

“There’s no limit to what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit,” he said, giving a nod to the Trump White House for “help[ing] us at the end” but framing the effort as a long-term priority for Kemp.

Gubernatorial candidates saddled with unpopular presidents always push to localize their races. And sometimes, it works — just ask Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who won reelection in his red state in 2023 with Joe Biden in the White House.

And Jackson hasn’t abandoned Trump entirely. Ralph Reed, a onetime chair of the state GOP, pointed out that the billionaire healthcare executive appeared alongside the president at the October rally in Perry. Trump endorsed Jackson after his primary victory over the summer.

“The president has come in here repeatedly,” he said. “Rick has been, to my knowledge, if not at every one of those events, the overwhelming majority of them.”

But he’s clearly looking for distance from Trump, who endorsed Jackson’s primary opponent.

That strategy, said Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime Georgia Republican political operative, makes sense given the president’s lack of popularity within the broader electorate.

“You have a governor who's the most popular politician of either party,” he said. “I would think if you want to be successful, you should be wrapping yourself around Brian Kemp and talking about the issues that are state issues and staying away from those federal issues.”