Rick Jackson won the Republican nomination for Georgia governor on June 16, 2026, defeating incumbent Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a runoff to claim the GOP standard in the fall general election, according to The New York Times.

Jackson, a health care executive, and Jones had advanced from the May 19 general primary without either candidate clearing the threshold required to avoid a runoff, per AP. Jones entered the runoff as the Trump-backed candidate and sitting lieutenant governor — the structural advantages of incumbency and a presidential endorsement behind him. Jackson prevailed anyway.

On the Senate side, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins — also carrying Trump's endorsement — defeated former football coach Derek Dooley to win the Republican nomination for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, according to Politico. Collins now advances to face Ossoff in November. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter was among the candidates Collins bested in the May 19 primary field before Dooley emerged as the runoff opponent.

The June 16 results set Georgia's fall ballot on both its highest-profile statewide races. Jackson will carry the GOP banner in the governor's race, and Collins will challenge Ossoff in what is expected to be one of the cycle's marquee Senate contests.

Georgia requires a majority — not merely a plurality — to win a party primary, a rule that routinely forces runoffs in crowded fields and adds a second competitive layer to the nominating process. The governor's race followed that pattern precisely: a multi-candidate May field narrowed to Jones and Jackson, and a standalone June runoff decided the outcome.

The Collins-Ossoff matchup carries particular weight. Ossoff, first elected in the January 2021 special election runoff that flipped both Georgia Senate seats, will defend his seat in a state that has remained a genuine battleground through successive cycles. Collins, a Middle Georgia congressman aligned closely with the former president, gives Republicans a nominee whose profile fits the coalition Trump has assembled in the state.

Jackson's victory over Jones is the more striking of the two outcomes. Defeating a sitting lieutenant governor who had secured the party's most coveted endorsement is not a routine primary result in Georgia Republican politics. Jones had real structural advantages; Jackson's win will draw scrutiny about what, exactly, drove the outcome — candidate quality, grassroots organization, spending, or some combination — as both parties assess the general election landscape.