Alone on debate stage, Burt Jones backs GOP election changes and slams opponent Rick Jackson for skipping

ATLANTA — The final Republican gubernatorial primary debate revealed more about Lt. Gov. Burt Jones than it did about billionaire Rick Jackson, as the latter declined to attend.

Or maybe it revealed a lot about Jackson, Jones said, speaking next to an empty lectern in a Georgia Public Broadcasting studio in Atlanta.

“You show up if you want to show people that you actually care,” Jones said.

Jackson declined to attend the debate sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club on Monday ahead of the June 16 primary runoff. Instead, he hosted a campaign event in Kennesaw with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican.

Jones fielded questions about election law, abortion, and tax credits.

He characterized the state’s $30 million-a-year tax credits to various companies as “corporate welfare,” but he did not specify which he would eliminate. As governor, he said he would cut those credits that do not produce enough jobs. He added that the state’s film tax credit has been a good investment.

He said he still supports Georgia’s ban on abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which he voted for when he was a senator.

And he supports Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to call a special legislative session on June 17, the day after the runoff, to redraw district lines. Kemp’s decision came after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-based redistricting enabled by a section of the Voting Rights Act. Black lawmakers contend Republicans want to maintain their grip on power by redrawing lines in a way that dilutes the impact of Black voters.

Districts should be drawn from “a geographic standpoint,” Jones said, rather than by racial demographics.

He also supported the new state law that forced five Democratic-leaning counties in metro Atlanta to hold nonpartisan elections for offices such as district attorney and county commissioner starting in 2028.

“Those were brought forward by people in the local delegations that felt so inclined to bring that legislation forward, and they were able to get it through both chambers, and then it was signed by the governor,” Jones said.

He opposed a similar state mandate on Georgia’s other 154 counties, saying it should be up to local delegations whether they want such offices to be partisan or nonpartisan.

Jones repeatedly hammered home the fact that his opponent had skipped the debate, using Jackson’s absence as an opportunity to attack him on ethics and on issues such as immigration.

At the last such debate, Jackson had stumbled in a response to an accusation by Jones that he had employed “illegals.” Jackson, who founded and leads a health care staffing and services company, responded that he did not know the answer because he had hired thousands of people, though he said he had always followed the law.

“Probably the reason why he’s not here now is he doesn’t have the answers for these questions,” Jones said. “It just shows a man’s character when he won’t show up and take questions and Q and A from journalists.”

That may have been a reference to a gubernatorial forum in April hosted by the Georgia Association of Manufacturers.

Every candidate for governor except Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms attended and answered formal questions from the hosts. Seven of the eight present then met up with reporters afterward for a round of informal questions.

Jackson was the only one who skipped that part.

One reporter asked each candidate to pick a word that best described them, and the public will never know what Jackson might have come up with on the spot.

Jones’ answer bent the one-word rule: “I like to win.”