Lt. Gov. Burt Jones: Ga. deserves a governor with a track record of success
Editor’s note: The AJC invited both Republican candidates for the June 16 gubernatorial runoff to write guest opinion columns about their vision for Georgia. Find Rick Jackson’s guest opinion here.
From Brunswick to Blue Ridge, I have crisscrossed this great state with that same message, and I believe it with everything I have. So, before you head to the polls on June 16, I want to tell you exactly what I’ve done and exactly what I plan to do as your next governor.
Over the past four years as your lieutenant governor, working alongside Gov. Brian Kemp, we have delivered for Georgia.
We cut the state income tax all four years, returning real money to every business and family in the state. We capped property taxes at the local level so Georgia’s seniors aren’t priced out of the homes they’ve worked their whole lives to own.
We passed the Riley Gaines Act, keeping boys out of girls’ sports and out of girls’ locker rooms. We were the first state in the nation to pass the TPUSA Act, protecting students’ First Amendment rights on school campuses.
We backed our law enforcement at every turn and passed Austin’s Law to give them the tools they need to get fentanyl off our streets and out of our communities.
We worked to address the mental health crisis running rampant across this country, funding mental health facilities because throwing people in jail and back on the streets isn’t the answer. We passed school choice because every school is not the right fit for every child.
I created the Senate Committee on Children and Families to get our foster youth out of motels and into loving homes and invested in workforce development and the trades that will always be the backbone of this state’s economy.
How Georgia can remain the No. 1 state for business
I took on the tough fights. I fought to get violent criminals out of the Public Safety Training Center aka “Cop City,” fought tooth and nail against rogue prosecutors like Fani Willis of Fulton County, and fought to end special interest tax breaks for data centers and the massive companies that have been railroading local governments.
While things have been going great here in Georgia, things can always be better. As the great football coach Lou Holtz says, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.”
Running a business and making payroll taught me that growth isn’t optional. It’s survival. As a walk-on player and team captain at the University of Georgia, I learned that hard work and dependability are the only ways to earn trust and deliver results. That experience doesn’t just inform how I govern — it drives it. Now it’s time to put it to work for Georgia’s next chapter.
That starts with eliminating the state income tax so we can compete with Florida, Texas and Tennessee for jobs and remain the No. 1 state to do business, as we have been for 12 years running.
It continues with cutting property taxes further, starting with updating the homestead exemption that hasn’t been touched since the 1930s, when the average price of a home in Georgia was $2,000, not $372,000. It includes continuing the fight for universal school choice so every parent has the opportunity to see their child succeed.
And to achieve these things? It takes fighting like hell to make sure Georgia doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. The recent violence on MARTA is a stark reminder of what life and public safety would look like under former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. She let Atlanta burn and abandoned her city when it needed her most.
Voters value experience and tested leaders
That’s not the kind of leader Georgia needs in this next chapter. Georgia needs someone who money can’t buy and who has the strong record to back up their promises. It’s why the majority of Georgia’s sheriffs and dozens of legislators have endorsed me.
It’s why President Donald Trump has never left my side. It’s why countless local leaders across this state are fighting back against the flood of misinformation being bankrolled by my opponent.
My opponent loves to mock me as a “career politician.” But what he’ll never understand is how proud I am of the record of success I’ve achieved alongside great leaders like Kemp. Voters put us in office because they value experience, not a bunch of empty promises made by someone who’s been on the sidelines making money for himself while the real work was getting done.
This race is simple. It’s about who is tried, tested, trusted and true. Georgia needs to elect a candidate who doesn’t shy away from a fight and who is authentic to who they are. One who doesn’t invent a record to try and win, but one who talks about a record that has already won. I fight for Georgia the same way I fight for Jan, Stella and Banks — with everything I have.
Early voting is open through Friday, and Election Day is June 16. It would be the honor of a lifetime to be your next governor. The time has come, Georgia. Let’s finish the drill!
Burt Jones is the lieutenant governor of Georgia. He won a slot during the May 19 primary to compete in the June 16 Republican gubernatorial primary runoff.
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