Why I am deliberately wasting my vote in Georgia's Republican primary

Choosing principle over pragmatism in a crowded, money-driven primary

Apr 29, 2026

I got a call the other day from Rick Jackson’s campaign, asking who I’d vote for in the coming gubernatorial primary. Honestly, I had not yet decided, but to make the kind voiced lady on the phone go away happy, I told her I’d vote for Jackson. As I thought more about it, I realized I had lied. You want to know why? I’ll tell you.

Before I tell you, let me vent about something in the Georgia Republican race. All of the Republican candidates are from the northern part of Georgia. The furthest south any of them are from is Jackson, a.k.a. Hawkins from “Stranger Things”. Jackson, to me, is the home of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, a.k.a. Death Row. One time, early in the era of ubiquitous GPS, my car’s navigation system decided it would be a great idea to avoid a crash on nearby I-75 northbound by routing me through Jackson, and straight through the prison. I realized about the time I saw the “Guard Line” sign, that me, plus the firearm in my glove box, plus driving past that sign, equals a stay longer than I wanted at said prison. I should have known better than to turn left at Prison Blvd. (“Steve, did you turn around?” “Duh”.)

Jackson is about a half hour north of Macon, which is what you would call Middle Georgia. To people whose entire existence is ITP (IYKYK), Jackson is nowhere if not for the link to a Netflix show. Macon is less than nowhere. The other candidates call home: Dunwoody, Johns Creek, and Alpharetta. All nice places, and all north of Atlanta proper. There is not one single Republican running for Georgia governor who calls south Georgia, west Georgia, or coastal Georgia, home. It’s a metropolitan race run by largely wealthy metropolitan Republicans. It bothers me.

The candidate from Jackson is Burt Jones, who is currently serving as Lieutenant Governor. In Georgia, the Lt. Gov. and the Governor do not run as a ticket, they run separately. When Burt Jones was a state senator, in 2020, he was one of the organizers and participants meeting in a locked room at the capitol, signing documents making them electors for the Electoral College in the State of Georgia, except that none of them was actually an elector in the State of Georgia. They signed up to be the alternate slate, or as everyone else calls them, fake electors, to be placed in the hands of then-Vice President Mike Pence, on January 6th, 2021. Such was the cockamamie plan hatched by John Eastman to keep President Donald Trump in power after his loss to Joe Biden.

Burt Jones was part of that plan. He was indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was as incompetent as her predecessor was corrupt—wait, Willis was corrupt too, except she did it for love, not money, but her amour definitely did it for money. When Willis was tossed—not for her brazen indiscretion, but for hosting a political fundraiser for a political opponent of Burt Jones—the person who by law was required to find someone to prosecute Jones, attorney Pete Skandalakis, chose himself after a two-year search. Then Skandalakis decided not to prosecute Burt Jones.

In my mind, Jones is disqualified. He should not be the sitting Lt. Gov. He should not be in government at all, but then again, look at the cast of characters worse than Burt Jones who currently hold high positions in the federal government.

It is vitally important to me that Burt Jones not win the Republican primary for governor. And should he win, God help Georgia, because we will end up with Keisha Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, as governor. All the polls have Bottoms leading by double digits, between 18 and 44 points, in the primary. You know, better her than Roy Barnes (the once and finished governor from the 1990s), or Geoff Duncan.

Duncan was the Republican Lt. Gov. under Gov. Brian Kemp in his first term, a man who once rode with President Donald Trump in The Beast, and decided he despised the man in a burst of revelation. Then Duncan wrote a book, “GOP 2.0: How the 2020 Election Can Lead to a Better Way Forward for America’s Conservative Party”. Then Duncan became a Democrat to run for governor of Georgia in 2026. I have no respect for Geoff Duncan. His story is a rerun of his mediocre minor league baseball career, followed by his mediocre political career, studded with his one meeting with Donald Trump. The Democratic Party welcomes Duncan, but they will never trust him.

Jason Esteves was a teacher, who later won a seat on the Atlanta Public School Board. In most of the polls, Esteves lags behind “don’t know.” The strongest Democratic contender against Bottoms is Michael Thurmond, one time CEO of DeKalb County. I don’t know Thurmond personally, but his office helped me on multiple occasions dealing with various issues with county services. Thurmond has held posts in the state executive branch, legislative branch, and served as an interim school superintendent. He is a solid administrator, and he is the top candidate besides Bottoms. If the Democratic race comes down to a runoff, because Bottoms can’t break 50 percent, Thurmond could conceivably steal it.

In any case, if Burt Jones wins the Republican primary, either Keisha Bottoms or Michael Thurmond would beat him in the general election, hands down. If Burt Jones wins the Republican primary, I would vote for either of them over him.

Let me be clear, I’d rather not vote for a Democrat. So, to reiterate, it’s vitally important to me that Burt Jones not win.

Besides Jones, running on the Republican ballot, there’s Chris Carr, the currently serving state Attorney General. He’s a solid candidate, who has raised nearly $5 million in his bid to be the nominee. But for all that cash, none of the polls has Carr breaking 10 percent, and he is consistently polling in last place behind the other candidates.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is polling just above 10 percent in most of the polls, and as high as 15 percent. In every poll he trails Burt Jones. Raffensperger is hated among Trump supporters, as you might remember, for being the one who wouldn’t agree with Trump’s facts about finding 12,000 votes so he could win Georgia, which he clearly lost in 2020. He is the one whose phone recording was provided to the Washington Post, and he is the one who suffered vitriol from Trump and the Georgia Republican Party, which all but expelled him.

Leading the race in just about every poll is Rick Jackson, who is running a clockwork campaign, and financing it himself. Jackson is a billionaire, whose company, Jackson Healthcare, provides medical personnel to hospitals and other organizations. In the polls, Jackson is running between 24 and 37 percent, above Jones who has not broken 25 percent.

And I’m not going to vote for Rick Jackson in the primary.

My vote is going to Brad Raffensperger. He’s the only one in the race who would not bow to Donald Trump or his lackeys. I know this because Brad Raffensperger had not bowed to Donald Trump the last time he was president. The current governor, Brian Kemp, has my respect for not bowing to Trump despite being the target of the president’s ire and online flames. Even during COVID-19, Kemp held to his guns, though he showed deference and grace toward Trump. The best person to succeed Brian Kemp as governor would be Brad Raffensperger, and he will get my vote.

But Brad Raffensperger will not win the primary. And if he won the primary, he would likely not beat either Michael Thurmond or Keisha Bottoms. Voting for Raffensperger is throwing away my vote for someone who, in 2027, will not be sworn in as governor of Georgia. But that’s not my goal. My goal is for Burt Jones to lose.

I believe that Rick Jackson will not get 50 percent plus one vote in the primary. Neither will Burt Jones, I think. So it will go to a runoff. Ideally, the runoff will be between Jones and Jackson. But who knows, maybe it will be Jackson and Raffensperger. If the runoff is between Jackson and Raffensperger, my vote once again will be for Raffs.

But if the runoff is between Jackson and Jones, I will vote for Jackson. I will vote for anyone against Jones. He cannot be governor. And Jones is running a dirty, dirty campaign, attacking Jackson over and over, calling him corrupt, a featherbedding billionaire who will use the governor’s position to fatten his company’s coffers. Jackson Healthcare does have large contracts with the State of Georgia, but Jackson himself said he’d unwind those if he becomes governor.

During the latest debate, Jackson was asked if he had any illegal aliens working for him. Truthfully, he said “I don’t know.” That’s the answer I’d give too, but I’d say why I don’t know. It’s because people who were once legal immigrants, when they were hired, are now made into illegal immigrants, with no options to stay in the U.S. or to become citizens. And even naturalized citizens, under the Trump DOJ, are being pursued for denaturalization. How can anyone know if they employ illegal aliens right now? Rick Jackson can’t say that because he has to win votes from Trump supporters, so he can’t trash Trump.

But Raffs, he can say anything. He can say the truth. I am going to throw my vote away this May, and cast it for Brad Raffensperger. I hope he wins, but I have no illusions it will happen. The best I can hope for is that Burt Jones, conspirator, fake elector, disqualified disgrace, will lose. If that means we end up with Rick Jackson, so be it. If it means we end up with Democrat Keisha Bottoms, or Michael Thurmond, so be it.

Maybe I’m not throwing my vote away at all.

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