Rick Jackson and Brian Kemp at a Jackson campaign rally in Canton Oct. 24, 2026. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Kemp has been traveling the state singing the praises of the man he hopes will take over his job after this year, Republican businessman Rick Jackson. Kemp is set to complete his second and final term in January, and Jackson is locked in a tight race with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms to succeed him.
At a campaign stop in DeKalb County Tuesday, Kemp urged supporters to focus their closing message on Republican results in Georgia rather than what is coming out of Washington. “We can’t let the Democrats nationalize this election,” Kemp said at the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. “This is about you. This is about us. This is about your community, this county and this state, and the things that we have achieved under great leadership now for almost 24 years.”
Kemp’s comment came just before former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to campaign in Georgia, though Republican national figures have also visited the state to stump for GOP candidates. President Donald Trump visited the state twice this month, and high-profile politicians like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have also hit the campaign trail in the final stretch of the campaign.
The shift also comes as Republicans have openly expressed alarm over Democratic turnout during early voting. Gov. Brian Kemp speaks in Roswell on Oct. 27, 2026. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Republicans have occupied the governor’s mansion in Georgia since 2003 when Sonny Perdue became the first Republican governor in Georgia since Reconstruction. Kemp, the state’s third consecutive two-term Republican leader, is set to leave office on a high note.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released this month found nearly 70% of Georgians approve of his performance and 52% say Georgia is moving in the right direction. The same poll suggests Georgians lack those warm feelings for Republicans at the federal level. Only 42% of respondents said they approved of Trump’s performance, and only 33% feel the nation is headed in the right direction.
Much of that displeasure with Trump, who won Georgia in two of the last three presidential elections, comes down to inflation. Voters attribute rising prices for gasoline and other goods to Trump’s war in Iran and tariff policy. And those low numbers could make the typical midterm election slump even more pronounced, said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie.
“The national mood is anti-Republican in this cycle, which is customary given which party that is in power, but it’s exacerbated by the fact that Donald Trump has a particularly low approval rating in this particular cycle,” she said. In that kind of environment, campaigning alongside Kemp makes sense, Gillespie said.
But in addition to overcoming the drag of running as a member of the party in power during a midterm, Jackson has to overcome a lack of name recognition. “He’s trying to attach himself to a record of success, but the challenge in terms of believability is whether or not he can actually lay claim to somebody else’s track record and be taken seriously,” she said. “He’s basically trying to buy some of Brian Kemp’s incumbency advantage, but he’s not the incumbent, and there is the rub,” she added.
President Donald Trump and GOP governor candidate Rick Jackson share the stage at a White House event at Cobb County’s Wheeler High School. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Jackson and Trump are both wealthy men, and Jackson welcomed comparisons between himself and the president during the primary. Even though Trump endorsed Jackson’s Republican opponent initially
