GOP rivals for governor close with contrasting pitches to voters

Today’s newsletter highlights

• Several Republicans, including Greg Dolezal, are piling on Brad Raffensperger.
• Burt Jones misses the final day of campaigning for jury duty.
• Fani Willis moves to disqualify Trent Brown from cases involving her office.

Closing arguments

(L-R) Republican candidates for governor Chris Carr, Clark Dean, Rick Jackson, Burt Jones, Gregg Kirkpatrick, Brad Raffensperger, Tom Williams and Ken Yasger appear at the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young governor debate last month. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Two metro Atlanta airports. Two primary-eve campaign stops. Two very different closing arguments for governor.

Attorney General Chris Carr ended his fly-around tour of Georgia on Monday in the sweltering heat at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, trailing in the polls and making one last case that he’s the nominee Republicans need to win swing voters in November.

There was no huge rally or speech. Instead, it was a 15-minute interview with "Politically Georgia" over a round of soft drinks.

“If we as Republicans don’t think we’re going to have headwinds in November, we are kidding ourselves. And if we Republicans think that the Democrats can nominate anybody, even Keisha Lance Bottoms, and we can win, we are kidding ourselves,” Carr said. “Because we said it twice before with Raphael Warnock and lost. And we said it once with Jon Ossoff, and lost.”

A few hours later, billionaire Rick Jackson closed his tour at a steakhouse next to the tarmac of Kennesaw’s McCollum Airport, where supporters had cheeseburger sliders and corn tacos as he pledged he would be President Donald Trump’s favorite governor and promised to bring a business executive’s discipline to state government.

“I’m going to do it responsibly,” Jackson said. “I’m going to do the evaluation of every department, and so forth. And I know that we can reduce our recurring expenses.”

Pressed on how much more he’ll spend in a likely runoff against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (could it be $200 million?), Jackson framed the race in terms of faith as much as fortune.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to do it,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t get into this. I don’t go into projects thinking, let’s try it out for a while and see how it’s going to work,” he said, shortly before a waiting helicopter brought him home. “I throw it all in. I’m going to leave it up to God.”

The contrast captured the final hours of a tumultuous race: Carr, badly trailing despite entering the race before any of his rivals, issuing one more warning about November.

Jackson, flush with cash and confidence, leaning on faith, fortune and a vow to spend more of both.

Things to know

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. (Abbey Cutrer/AJC)

Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:

• Retired state employees were among the biggest losers when Gov. Brian Kemp used his veto pen to trim spending in Georgia’s new budget, the AJC’s David Wickert reports.
• The Judicial Qualifications Commission says two left-leaning candidates for the state Supreme Court violated the judicial code of conduct, the AJC’s Rosie Manins reports. The candidates said the JQC’s statement violated their free speech rights and called it “a purely political move to keep voters in the dark.”
• Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has scaled back his plan to renew the city’s tax allocation districts, the AJC’s Shaddi Abusaid reports.

Crossover move

People are seen walking toward the community center at Bessie Branham Park in Kirkwood during the final day of early voting before the midterm primary elections on Friday. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

GOP leaders have long pushed for closed primary elections in Georgia, arguing voters should register by political party to make sure Republican voters are electing the Republican nominees.

But evidence from Georgia’s early voting period suggests it’s Republicans who are crossing over in bigger numbers to vote for Democrats. As of Friday, 21,600 people who cast a Republican ballot in the 2022 primary cast a Democratic ballot this year. Meanwhile, only 4,600 people who voted in the Democratic primary four years ago cast a Republican ballot this year.

Of course, just because you voted in the 2022 Republican primary doesn’t make you a Republican (and vice versa). But this statistic, once all the votes are counted, could offer a glimpse of which party has the more enthusiastic voters.

Bunker battle

Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Republicans are piling on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, saying the GOP candidate for governor is refusing to let State Election Board members observe his office’s emergency operations center on election night.

State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to give credentialed poll workers and State Election Board members access to observe election night reporting.

“This is about transparency,” Dolezal said in a statement. “Georgia law is crystal clear: election activities are supposed to occur in public view. Yet the Secretary of State is operating a closed-door ‘bunker’ where statewide vote totals are handled without meaningful observation from election monitors or even members of the State Election Board.”

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Reps. Clay Fuller and Rich McCormick asked for nonpartisan federal election observers to monitor the vote today, with McCormick saying “voters deserve confidence in our election process.”

Raffensperger called Dolezal’s lawsuit a “desperate search for press attention and votes.” Election votes are officially tallied at the county level and then reported to the secretary of state.

“For a guy who constantly lectures everyone about election integrity, you’d think Sen. Dolezal would know that votes are not counted in the Secretary of State’s Emergency Operations Center,” he said.

Jury Duty

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones had to skip his last day campaigning for governor on Monday to report for jury duty in his home of Butts County. (Courtesy)

While Jackson, Carr and other statewide hopefuls were crisscrossing the state on Monday in hopes of advancing past primary day, Jones was no where to be seen on the campaign trail.

He had been called for jury duty in his home of Butts County.

Jones’ spokeswoman Kayla Lott confirmed Jones skipped the last day on the campaign trail to report for duty, just like anyone else would have to do.

“Burt Jones shows up,” she said. “That’s the kind of governor Georgia deserves.”

Skipping jury duty can land you in hot water in Georgia. A Peach County judge sent sheriff’s deputies out last year to round up no-shows for her jury to hear their excuses and get another day on the books.

Kemp’s last stand

Derek Dooley makes his final case before the GOP primary in Georgia's U.S. Senate race, with Gov. Brian Kemp behind him, at West Cobb Diner in Dallas. (Patricia Murphy/AJC)

Kemp may have taken a pass on the U.S. Senate race to challenge Ossoff, but you couldn’t tell from his schedule this spring as he has stumped across the state at dozens of events backing his childhood friend and former University of Tennessee football coach, Derek Dooley.

The primary will now be as much a test of the governor’s continued influence in the state as much as of Dooley’s appeal. Kemp’s federal PAC, Hardworking Americans, has spent $1.6 million on TV buys to support Dooley’s bid. And Kemp was back out on the trail with Dooley the last two weeks to make the case that, unlike U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, Dooley is the only Republican in the race who can appeal to Georgia’s key independent and swing voters in November.

The Kemp factor has been essential for many of Dooley’s new voters.

Johnny Ahn, a private equity manager from Johns Creek, was at the West Cobb Diner to see the duo campaigning Monday.

“The strongest thing for me is the endorsement from Governor Kemp,” Ahn said. “It just really opened my ear toward Dooley more so than the other two. I’m just pulling for somebody who can beat Jon Ossoff.”

Willis vs. Brown

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol in December 2025. (Brynn Anderson/AP)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is moving to disqualify Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Trent Brown from cases involving her office, citing comments Brown made to the AJC accusing her of recruiting Will Wooten to compete for the seat on the bench.

Brown, who faces Wooten in Tuesday’s nonpartisan judicial election, fired back by calling Willis unethical and saying he had already recused himself from cases involving the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for at least one year after the election.

Brown said Willis’ filing shows a misunderstanding of the appeals court.

“I apologize to the taxpayers of Fulton County who have once again borne the expenses of Fani Willis’s personal vendettas against the fair and impartial among us who let the law stand in the way of her celebrity,” he wrote on social media.

Listen up

People are seen waiting in line at Bessie Branham Park in Kirkwood last week during the final day of early voting before Georgia's midterm primary elections today. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we break down how the top candidates are faring heading into primary day with NBC News’ Steve Kornacki.

You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.

G20 in Atlanta

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seen here on the last day of his visit to Italy and the Vatican earlier this month. (Stefano Rellandini/Pool Photo via AP)

Leaders of the G20, a consortium of the globe’s largest economies, will convene in Georgia this fall.

The U.S. Department of State announced Monday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta on Oct. 30 and 31. The meeting will include discussions among Rubio’s international counterparts on trade, supply chains and strengthening relationships.