2 hometown candidates, 2 statewide runoffs, 1 small Georgia town
JACKSON — On peak days, visitors swarm the streets in this small Middle Georgia town — drawn by its starring role in the television series “Stranger Things.”
They huddle around their tour guide outside the Butts County Courthouse, recognizable to fans as the Hawkins Public Library, and take photos beside the alleyway where a fight breaks out between two of the show’s main characters in the very first season.
But these days tourists are met with another sight. Red, white and blue campaign signs adorn the square’s brick facades urging residents to vote for Republicans Burt Jones for governor and Mike Collins for U.S. Senate.
Jackson’s nearly 6,000 residents are accustomed to the decoration. Both candidates call the city their hometown and both are locked in heated runoff elections for top political positions in the state.
In the June 16 runoff election, Jones, who spent a decade in the state Senate before being elected lieutenant governor in 2022, will face billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson (who isn’t from Jackson, despite the name). Collins, who is serving his second term in the U.S. House, is up against former football coach Derek Dooley.
“I have never voted for so many people I know personally before in my life,” said Kim Freshwater, who was making her way to the local farmers market Saturday, just two days before early voting kicked off again in the county.
“Having people from your hometown represent you in D.C. and at the state level too, I mean, we couldn’t ask for anything better,” she said.
Republican voters in Butts County turned out at nearly two times the rate of other GOP primary voters statewide during the May 19 primary election, with Collins winning more than 74% of the vote in his home county and Jones winning nearly 69%.
Both candidates were forced into runoffs when no one in the crowded field of Republicans earned more than 50% of the vote.
The Jones campaign is hoping that turnout among Jackson’s Republican residents for a second time in a month could help push the lieutenant governor over the finish line.
Candidates expect a certain advantage from their home turf. During the primary, Jackson’s strength came in metro Atlanta and its exurbs, where he lives and built his business. Dooley, meanwhile, dominated his native Athens-Clarke County by a wide margin, even as Collins performed well across much of northeast Georgia.
But can one small town really make a difference in a statewide election?
“Absolutely,” said Kayla Lott, Jones’ communications director, who joined a group of doorknockers making their rounds around the town that Saturday.
“It’s just like he always says, it’s great to have the endorsement of elected officials, but the most important support is from the people who know him,” Lott said.
That means targeting voters with personal ties to Jones — classmates from his high school days, teammates from his football years, former students of his mother’s kindergarten class or members of the local Rotary club.
Or are fellow congregants of the Rock Springs Church 30 minutes away from Jackson in Milner, where senior pastor Benny Tate is a vocal supporter of both Jones and Collins.
The lieutenant governor is also widely recognized as an heir to Jones Petroleum Co., a large Georgia company his father founded in 1968 with a single convenience store.
The group of canvassers who fanned out across Jackson’s city center last weekend targeted those connections. They stopped in at Jones’ go-to barbershop, Headliners, where — in between debate over football — owner Greg Patterson urged clients to cast ballots during the early voting period that kicked off Monday.
“I think it increased awareness, so people are hitting the polls a little bit better this time,” Patterson said.
Next, the group paid visits to some of Jackson’s oldest families in the homes that surround the town square.
Lucky for them, longtime residents Byrd and Tyler Garland happened to be sitting on their porch enjoying the early morning weather with their dogs, Scout and Scooter, adopted from “Butts Mutts,” a dog rescue operation founded by Jones’ wife, Jan.
The campaign commotion around town reminded Byrd of when his father, Ben Garland, launched his own bid for governor in 1954.
As a child, he sat in the back of the family’s Oldsmobile as his father spouted campaign lines through a microphone that projected from a speaker strapped to the top of the car. “He didn’t win though,” Byrd Garland chuckled.
Tyler Garland was the counselor at Jackson High School and described the high-profile politicians as children they watched grow up.
“You really know the character of people when you’ve known them all their lives,” she said.
But other residents still want to know why they should vote for their hometown candidates. Eric Clemons, pastor of Jackson First Baptist Church, quizzed the doorknockers on why he should support Jones.
“I’ve been around politics all my life. I grew up in Atlanta during the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. “As I’ve grown older, I don’t just vote because I know somebody. I want there to be some substance to what I’m voting for.”
That morning, Jones’ volunteers faced one instance of pushback. At the farmers market, a group passing by exclaimed they “would not be voting for him.” Others selling goods from underneath shaded tents and customers lounging on picnic tables said they wanted to stay out of the political debate altogether.
Butts County is a GOP-stronghold, but around 1,500 residents cast ballots in the Democratic primary race for governor with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms winning more than 65% of the vote.
And during the 2024 presidential election, more than 72% of the county backed President Donald Trump — whose endorsement Jones touts on the campaign trail — while Vice President Kamala Harris earned around 27%.
Beneath Jackson’s surface, two kinds of residents emerged: those energized by the election season that features familiar faces and those who simply carry on with their daily lives until the campaign signs disappear from Jackson’s streets.
At Hawkins Headquarters, Cameron Thompson was busy managing six sold-out walking tours and a birthday party at the “Stranger Things”-inspired party room Saturday. The owner of bustling tourism operation was once a resident of Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park neighborhoods before moving to Jackson.
Thompson said that the commotion around the election hasn’t seemed to impact residents or businesses much and — based on votes cast during the primary — Jones, has Butts County “in the bag.”
“As far as politics goes, it seems like business as usual,” he said.