ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) — Georgia state Rep. Derrick Jackson said Tuesday that he's running for governor next year, joining three other Democrats in a race without a clear frontrunner after two high-profile candidates decided not to run.
The metro Atlanta Democrat said he will launch his campaign Friday, emphasizing his work in business and politics and his 22 years of military service. The U.S. Navy veteran was elected to the state House in 2016 and worked as a marketing executive with General Electric.
As governor, Jackson said he would “put Georgia families first," in part by expanding access to medical care and economic opportunities in rural areas.
“My Republican friends love to tout Georgia as the number one state to do business, but I'm going to campaign on making Georgia the number one place to work, to play, to have a family and for young professionals to realize that regardless of which of the 159 counties they live in, there's going to be opportunity there,†Jackson said in an interview with the Associated Press.
He plans to push for stricter gun regulations and to repeal Georgia’s , which took effect in 2022 and effectively prohibited abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy.
Jackson will join former Atlanta Mayor , Atlanta state and Atlanta pastor Olu Brown in the Democratic primary. They will compete for the Democratic nomination in the race to replace the state’s popular term-limited . Democrat , who ran and lost to Kemp in 2018 and 2022, has not closed the door on a third run.
Jackson finished sixth in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in 2022. After losing, he was reelected to the House in 2023 following the death of state He was by Rep. Carolyn Hugley after running for House minority leader. Despite past losses, Jackson said his experience campaigning for statewide office will help him pull ahead of his competitors.
Inspired by civil rights icon John Lewis, Jackson said he has a “moral obligation†to run because he saw state and federal policies that were “not right, not fair, not just.†He wants to help Georgians who could be impacted by President Donald Trump's that Jackson said “will devastate a lot of families†with provisions such as cuts to Medicaid funds.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, once the known for her gun control advocacy, announced in March she wasn’t running because she needed to focus on her husband's health after complications from cancer surgery. Former state Sen. Jason Carter, former President Jimmy Carter’s moderate grandson and the for governor, said he would not run because his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: .
