Baggage Or Badge Of Honor? Candidate's Post-2020 Election Record Looms Over Georgia Governor's Race

By Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder

September 2, 2025

Why should GOP primary voters vote for Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to be Georgia’s next governor over Attorney General Chris Carr or another candidate who may emerge between now and May’s party primary?

For several speakers at Jones’ official campaign kick-off in Flovilla last week, Jones’ loyalty to President Donald Trump shows he is the right person for the job. Jones – who celebrated receiving Trump’s endorsement last month – is so loyal to the president that he tried to help Trump win the 2020 election even after he already lost it, said now-U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach.

Five years and multiple investigations and court cases later, nobody has been charged with rigging the 2020 election in Georgia or any other state.

U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

“We saw boxes being stuffed,” Beach said. “We saw all this, and we got all these complaints, and so we started asking questions. And we wanted a special session, we wanted to get down to the bottom of it, and that’s when I learned this man has backbone and courage. And I will tell you, we both got punished. We lost our chairmanships, but we never wavered. He never wavered.”

Jones and Beach, both state senators at the time, were stripped of leadership positions after they joined calls to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia, punishment from then-Republican, then-Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.

At the Flovilla rally, Jones and his allies wore that punishment like a badge of honor.

“In 2020, when President Trump needed allies, these politicians were silent,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, referring to what he characterized as fair weather MAGA fans. “When Fani Willis weaponized her office and tried to take Trump down, these politicians were nowhere to be found. And even when Donald J. Trump was our nominee to beat Joe Biden, these politicians wouldn’t even say his name. This is what I call political appropriation. These politicians want a ticket on the Trump train, but they never paid the price. Let me tell you something, Burt Jones paid the price with blood, sweat and tears.”

Jones also became a potential target of the Fulton County election interference case for his role serving as one of the GOP alternate electors for Trump. But a special prosecutor concluded last year that criminal charges should not be brought against him. That case has stalled since Trump returned to the White House.

To pivot or not to pivot?

But while that pro-Trump rhetoric may play well with GOP primary voters, a more moderate general electorate could find the Trump fealty more of a turnoff, said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

“The challenge with the median voter as it relates to primaries and general elections is that what’s necessary to win a primary election could possibly be a liability if you go too far in a general election because the electorate changes and the median voter is going to be more ideologically moderate in a general than in a primary,” she said. “So the question is, do you make promises in a primary election that make you look unprincipled or equivocating in a general election context?”

“If, all of a sudden, he became a Brian Kemp, Chamber of Commerce kind of Republican, it would come off as inauthentic, and risk losing the MAGA base,” she added.

Jones and his allies may be calculating that Jones can avoid the usual political dance to one side during a primary then back to the center during the general.

“So the thing that whoever the Republican nominee has in their favor is there are still more Republicans in the state than Democrats,” Gillespie said. “And so given the fact that the fundamentals of the state privilege Republicans, what he’s banking on is not having to pivot that much. That could be helped or hindered by the strength of the Democratic Party organization going into this election.”

Gillespie said whether the Democratic nominee is former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves or former DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond, their campaign will likely run ads attacking Jones for his 2020 election interference, should he become the nominee.

“But I think the question is, is that going to be enough to persuade Democratic voters, particularly ones who don’t show up regularly in statewide elections, to turn out and vote? I think what Burt Jones or Chris Carr would be banking on is that that’s a tall order, a huge task for Democrats to do, given their numerical disadvantage.”

Be like Kemp

Gov. Brian Kemp. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Kennesaw State University political science professor and former Cobb County GOP chairman Jason Shepherd said courting voters who still believe in widespread 2020 voter fraud could be a dangerous endeavor.

“Burt Jones needs to thread the needle very carefully,” he said. “I mean, the activist class is still very much focused on 2020, but the activist class within the party as a whole is only 1% of the primary electorate. On top of that, he doesn’t have the entire activist class. So you’re talking about appealing to only about one half of 1%.”

Trump endorsements aren’t quite as hefty as they may be in other states, Shepherd added, referring to the 2022 primary in which most of Trump’s Georgia endorsees fell flat.

That year, Carr fended off the Trump-endorsed John Gordon with nearly three quarters of the vote and Kemp slapped away a challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who was enlisted by the former president to dethrone Kemp, with a similar margin.

“Brian Kemp really set the example,” Shepherd said. “Brian Kemp ran a campaign about what he had done in his first four years as governor and didn’t focus on the Trump administration at all. In fact, he more or less ignored Trump’s attacks. Given the opportunity, he would say complimentary things about Donald Trump, just sort of agree to disagree. And I think that shows the path forward.”

In a statement, the Carr campaign indicated they may use a similar approach next year.

“In 2020 and in 2022, Chris Carr proudly stood by Governor Kemp,” said Carr spokesperson Julia Mazzone. “The Governor and Chris Carr received 75% of the vote in the Republican Primary in 2022 because Republicans overwhelmingly endorsed their style of conservative leadership.”

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