Georgia Insurance Commissioner Endorses Forsyth County Businessman Rick Jackson for Governor

John King, Georgia's Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner and a retired major general who served combat tours in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, and Afghanistan, threw his endorsement behind Forsyth County businessman Rick Jackson on Tuesday, becoming the most prominent statewide elected official to publicly back the healthcare billionaire ahead of the May 19 Republican primary for governor.

King's decision carries sharp political weight. By backing Jackson, the commissioner placed himself squarely against three fellow statewide officeholders: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Attorney General Chris Carr, each of whom is either competing for the seat or aligned with a rival camp in what has become one of the most expensive and combative gubernatorial primaries in Georgia history.

"I'm a lawman and soldier who took the Insurance Commissioner's job for one reason: To get things done," King said in announcing his support. "Rick Jackson as governor is our best shot at continuing to get things done."

Jackson, the founder and chief executive of Jackson Healthcare, launched his campaign in February from his company's Alpharetta headquarters, seeding it with $50 million of his own money and immediately deploying a $40 million advertising blitz that reshaped the race within weeks. The Forsyth County resident's willingness to self-fund at that scale has outpaced every other candidate on the airwaves and, combined with his record at Jackson Healthcare, has drawn scrutiny and counterpunches from rivals in roughly equal measure.

Jones entered the race as the presumed frontrunner, bolstered by a high-profile endorsement from former President Donald Trump. But Jackson's advertising onslaught and a string of legal and political clashes have transformed the primary into a two-man fight that has left little oxygen for Raffensperger and Carr, both of whom have publicly suggested the Jackson-Jones feud could ultimately open a path to a runoff for the rest of the field.

For King, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, became Georgia's first Hispanic statewide official, and won a full term in 2022, the endorsement is itself a political calculation. He is also running for reelection as commissioner, and publicly aligning with Jackson at this stage signals confidence that the Forsyth businessman's coalition is worth joining rather than waiting out.

With early voting underway before the May 19 primary, the King endorsement lands at the moment campaigns are converting donor lists into volunteers and competing for the attention of Republican voters in north metro counties like Forsyth. Whether it accelerates further elite support for Jackson or triggers a countermove from Jones's camp will become clear in the weeks ahead.