The son of Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson is being called out for his family’s ties to Project 2025.
Shane Jackson, who serves as president of Rick Jackson’s multi-billion-dollar health care business, Jackson Healthcare, sits on the board of an organization that advised on the creation of Project 2025. The controversial 900-page document, published in 2024 by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, outlines many policies implemented by the Trump administration, including historic cuts to federal safety-net programs and the slashing of federal jobs.
“We’ve seen the impacts of Project 2025 directly on people who live right here in Georgia,” says Perrin Bostic, a Democratic strategist based in Atlanta.
Bostic says the ties to Project 2025 and Shane Jackson, the son of Rick Jackson, the GOP nominee for Georgia governor, could be “disastrous for Georgians,” should he defeat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, who could make history as Georgia’s first Black governor and the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history.
“That’s definitely not what we need here in Georgia,” Bostic said of Rick Jackson.
Shane Jackson is a member of the Board of Directors for the Foundation of Government Accountability, a conservative public policy think tank. FGA served on the advisory board for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
The 922-page policy manifesto, authored by several individuals who now work for or advise President Donald Trump, called for many of the measures that have been implemented by the Trump administration. Those actions included rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion in the name of “anti-white” discrimination, slashing thousands of federal jobs belonging held by Black Americans, dismantling the Department of Education, and implementing aggressive immigration enforcement, including mass deportations.
The Foundation of Government Accountability is joined by other conservative groups, such as America First Legal Foundation, which founded White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who played a role in creating Project 2025. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during his 2024 presidential contest against former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, saying he knew nothing about it, only to embrace it once he was sworn into office for a second term.
FGA also took credit for the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, and has advocated blocking Obamacare subsidies, all of which have driven up health care costs and made many households more vulnerable to economic harm and food insecurity.
Given the tanking popularity of President Trump and his administration amid nationwide economic anxiety, Shane Jackson’s ties to Project 2025 could become a political liability for Rick Jackson, a health care billionaire who has repeatedly told Georgia voters he would be just like Trump, with a “southern tongue.”
Rick Jackson’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from theGrio.
Jackson’s opponent in the race for governor of Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has sought to tie the wealthy Republican to Trump and his policies, warning voters that voting for Jackson is voting for business as usual.
“There’s nothing that’s gone untouched by this administration, including Black employment in this state,” Bottoms previously told theGrio. “What’s really been disheartening is my opponent in this race has not pushed back.”
Bostic, who is canvassing in Georgia on behalf of Bottoms, says Rick Jackson should answer for his son’s ties to Project 2025, which has devastated Georgians, most especially Black Georgians.
“Georgians need to know where Rick Jackson stands on the issues,” he told theGrio. “Does he believe that Georgians should have access to healthcare? Does he believe that we should have more regulations to make sure that Georgia is free of environmental harm?”
The Democratic strategist explained, “Georgia has some of the highest uninsured rates in the country, and what we know is that Project 2025 has pushed for Medicaid eligibility changes, which have made it harder for people to get access to health insurance.” He continued, “But also from an environmental standpoint, Project 2025 has pushed to sort of deregulate environmental protections, and that comes right at the sort of precipice of data center expansion here, which is unpopular across all parties, Republican, Democrat, and Independent.”
“Rick Jackson is already in business with the Trump family; he’s praised the President and campaigned with him three times in the past few weeks,” said Ofirah Yheskel, director of external affairs at the Democratic Governors Association. She told theGrio, “Now we know that his closest business associate Shane Jackson was one of the architects of the Trump agenda that is hurting Georgia and especially harming Black Georgians — from cutting health care to stripping away fundamental rights.”
Yheskel added, “The ties between the Trumps and the Jacksons aren’t just alarming — they are disqualifying.”
Bostic said, by contrast to Rick Jackson, a Governor Bottoms would “put people first” rather than the interests of the wealthy and corporations.
“It’s about a governor who has an agenda that wants to make sure that Georgians have access to health insurance. We want to fully fund education, making sure every kid has access to quality pre-K. It’s also about making sure that the community has a say in what’s happening in their communities, regarding data centers,” said the Democratic strategist.
He added, “But it’s also largely about cost and who’s going to show up and promote an agenda that will be cost-friendly to Georgians. And I think that is what we’ll see.”
