Burt Jones, Rick Jackson Advance to GOP Runoff in Georgia Governor’s Race

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) and billionaire Rick Jackson will compete in a runoff in June to become the Republican candidate for governor in the Peach State.

Jones and Jackson will face each other again on June 16 after no candidate in Tuesday’s Republican primary garnered more than 50 percent of the votes. NBC News called the race with just 29 percent of the votes in, with Jones at 36.7 percent and Jackson at 34.5 percent. The Associated Press (AP) also called the race for a runoff. 

Presidential Donald Trump endorsed Jones early in the race, with Jones being one of the few leading Republicans in Georgia who backed the president’s effort to recount votes in the 2020 election. Jackson, a health care executive, upended the race when he entered earlier this year and dumped $80 million of his own money into ads for his campaign.

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