Cruz breaks with Trump in Georgia and South Carolina governor races

Ted Cruz has stepped into two GOP governor races by backing candidates running against Donald Trump’s picks, a rare break that turns state contests in Georgia and South Carolina into a measure of Trump’s hold on the party. In Georgia, Cruz sided with billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. In South Carolina, he backed Attorney General Alan Wilson over Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

The stakes go beyond two runoff contests. Trump’s endorsements still carry real weight inside the Republican Party, and Ballotpedia’s tracker, last updated June 5, listed 307 Trump endorsements in 2026, including 303 in primary races, with a 98% primary success rate. Cruz’s decision is being read as a test of whether influential Republicans are beginning to build pockets of independence from Trump in key state races, and whether that kind of break can hold in the face of a president who remains the dominant force in the party.

Georgia offers the clearest case study. The runoff was set after neither Jones nor Jackson won a majority in the May 19 primary, and the race has already become one of the most expensive and contested in the country, with more than $110 million spent combined before the runoff. The winner on June 16 will replace term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp in an open Republican race and then face Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.

South Carolina brings a different set of power dynamics. The June 23 runoff is for an open governor’s seat in a state that has not had an open governor’s race in 16 years. Evette secured a late Trump endorsement, but Wilson also picked up backing from Rep. Nancy Mace after she conceded the primary, a sign that intraparty alliances are still shifting even as Trump’s influence remains central.

For Cruz, the moves carry both opportunity and risk. Strategists Jim Kessler and Mark Bednar have framed the endorsements as an early test of whether Cruz can show independence from Trump ahead of a possible 2028 presidential run. But if Trump’s candidates prevail in both states, Cruz’s break could look less like a marker of emerging GOP autonomy and more like a challenge to the party’s most powerful vote-getter.