Jon Ossoff

Donald Trump hates to associate himself with losers. He’s reportedly still angry that his advisers talked him into endorsing Iowa gubernatorial candidate Randy Feenstra, who lost on June 2. Now he has another big L on his forehead in a state where he’s had many troubles before. In Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election, self-funding billionaire Rick Jackson beat Trump’s candidate, Burt Jones, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Perhaps Trump should stick to senatorial endorsements. The Georgia candidate he endorsed at the last minute, U.S. representative and MAGA champion Mike Collins, handily dispatched Derek Dooley, a former football coach and protégé of Governor Brian Kemp. Collins will face formidable incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff in November. The Ossoff camp is likely pleased: There’s nothing really attractive to swing voters about Collins, whereas Dooley had no record to attack and was willing to follow Kemp’s successful playbook for winning tough races in Georgia. Ossoff immediately came out swinging:

Jackson’s race against Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is another matter. He is sort of the Tom Steyer of Republican politics. Jackson is a successful health-care executive who’s spent over $100 million of his own money on his campaign. This is his first run for political office; he hadn’t even entered the race back when Trump endorsed Burt Jones, Georgia’s lieutenant governor.

Jones earned Trump’s loyalty by serving as a “fake elector” in 2020, and he remained an election denier ever since. He finished first in the May primary, and his odds of victory improved just this last weekend when Governor Kemp unexpectedly endorsed him. But Jackson prevailed thanks to his wallet and a message that attracted metro Atlanta voters whose initial primary picks, Brad Raffensperger or Chris Carr, lost in May’s election. Jackson seemed to attract a lot of the same voters as Senate primary loser Derek Dooley. But his heavy advertising, in which he relentlessly described his runoff opponent as corrupt and lazy, gave him an edge. Jones appeared to do better on Election Day than in early voting, so the Trump-Kemp dual endorsement may have kept him from a more serious beating.

Though 2026 should be a good year for Democrats in Georgia and nationally, Lance Bottoms should be aware that Rick Jackson will spend however much it takes, and say whatever it takes, to beat her. And Trump will come around too, since Jackson has vowed to become “Trump’s favorite governor” and is big on attacking the political Establishment and taxes of any sort.

Meanwhile, the discouraged Governor Kemp and the defeated Lieutenant Governor Jones must immediately deal with a special legislative session beginning today in which Republican legislators may gerrymander congressional and legislative districts for 2028. The move is sure to inflame Black voters and make Georgia an even hotter political battleground.

While Trump got the Georgia gubernatorial race wrong, he scored some significant victories in other states on Tuesday. In Alabama’s GOP runoff election, Trump’s pick to succeed Senator Tommy Tuberville, U.S. representative Barry Moore, easily defeated another “outsider,” former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson. Moore is heavily favored to defeat Democrat Everett Wess, a former judge, in November. And in Oklahoma, a third Trump-backed candidate, former state senator Mike Mazzei, will face state attorney general Gentner Drummond in an August runoff for the Republican nomination to succeed term-limited Governor Kevin Stitt.

The White House is now so nervous about additional endorsement mishaps that it is reportedly considering hedging on Trump’s recent gesture of support for Pam Evette in South Carolina’s very competitive gubernatorial race by also endorsing her opponent, state attorney general Alan Wilson. When you support everyone in a contest, you can’t lose. But no matter how he fares in remaining primaries, the real test of Trump’s clout will come in November, and things aren’t looking great for him then.