Rick Jackson faces scrutiny over past donations, Forsyth fundraiser role

Rick Jackson’s Cumming mansion has become a Forsyth County flashpoint in the Georgia governor’s race. The Jackson Healthcare founder once hosted a fundraiser there for Geoff Duncan, and now the same local setting is tied to questions about Jackson’s past donations to Stacey Abrams and Liz Cheney as Republican voters weigh whether those old alliances matter.

Jackson, 71, entered the race on Feb. 3, 2026, after saying he would personally finance an initial $40 million advertising blitz and loan his campaign $50 million. He had pledged about a year earlier to back Lt. Gov. Burt Jones before reversing course and jumping into the race himself, then casting himself as a pro-Trump outsider focused on cutting taxes, freezing property taxes and making Georgia more affordable.

The money race quickly became the story. By May 8, Jackson had raised nearly $83.5 million, about $83 million of it from himself. Jones had raised nearly $4.4 million and loaned himself another $17 million. The two candidates combined to spend nearly $100 million in the primary, turning the contest into one of the most expensive intraparty battles in Georgia history.

Jones finished first in the May 19 primary with 38 percent, while Jackson took 33.9 percent, forcing a June 16 runoff. The fight has centered not just on taxes and spending, but on whether Jackson’s past should disqualify him with the GOP base. Jones’s campaign has pointed to Jackson and his family as supporters of Democrats like Jon Ossoff and Stacey Abrams. Georgia Recorder reported that Jones highlighted a $500 donation tied to Jackson’s company to Abrams in 2013. Jackson said that donation came during a 2013 push for conservative tort reform, and that such cross-party alliances were part of how politics worked at the Gold Dome.

Jackson has tried to answer that criticism by leaning into his own backstory, including growing up poor in Atlanta’s Techwood projects, spending time in foster care and building a fortune in health care. He has also used a Forsyth County campaign stop on April 2 to talk about taxes, health care and data centers, saying his own investment in a Texas data center shaped his views on the issue.

Forsyth has remained in the spotlight for another reason, too. A workers’ compensation case involving landscaper Facundo Ortega, who slipped and hurt his back at Jackson’s estate in March 2023, reached Forsyth County Superior Court in May 2026. For Jackson, the county has become both a private power base and a public proving ground, just as the runoff will test whether GOP voters care more about old donor ties or his promise to remake Georgia’s tax climate.