{"slug": "the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from", "title": "The cost to overcome a Trump endorsement? $100 million. Plus more takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries", "summary": "An endorsement from President Donald Trump is valuable but not foolproof in Republican primaries, as Rick Jackson spent over $100 million of his own money to defeat Trump-endorsed Burt Jones in the Georgia governor runoff. Trump's picks succeeded in Alabama and Oklahoma, while Georgia secretary of state race saw Tim Fleming defeat Vernon Jones, who focused on election fraud claims. The results highlight the limits of Trump's influence when faced with massive self-funding.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...By **JONATHAN J. COOPER, JESSE BEDAYN** and **SIMRAN PARWANI**, Associated Press\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) — An endorsement from President Donald Trump is worth a lot in Republican primaries. But it’s not foolproof, especially when there’s a lot of money involved.\n\nRick Jackson’s campaign spent more than $100 million, largely out of his own pocket, to defeat Trump-endorsed Burt Jones in the Republican runoff for Georgia governor. It was another rare example of the president’s choice falling short in a primary battle.\n\nTrump’s efforts were more successful elsewhere. His candidate for U.S. Senate won a runoff in Alabama, and his pick for Oklahoma governor advanced to another runoff there.\n\nFour states and the District of Columbia held primaries Tuesday. Among Democrats, the contests hinged on longstanding divides between progressives and moderates as the party tries to chart the best path forward to November.\n\nHere are some takeaways as votes come in from Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia and Oklahoma, as well as a [special election in California](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/16/polls-close-on-special-election-to-replace-swalwell/).\n\n#### Georgia governor, secretary of state\n\nNothing is certain in politics, but a “complete and total endorsement” from Trump is about the surest path possible to winning a Republican primary.\n\n**Rick Jackson** found another path to the Republican nomination for Georgia governor, but it was pricey. The billionaire healthcare tycoon personally supplied most of the $100 million-plus that his campaign has spent to persuade Republican primary voters to overlook Trump’s advice.\n\nTrump endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones more than a year ago and reiterated his support last week, praising Jones’ “Courage and Wisdom” in a social media post.\n\nBefore Tuesday’s runoff, Jackson came in second behind Jones in the May 19 primary, though nearly a third of voters backed other candidates.\n\nJackson will face Democrat **Keisha Lance Bottoms**, the former Atlanta mayor, in November to lead one of the nation’s preeminent battleground states.\n\nState Rep. **Tim Fleming** won the Republican nomination for Georgia secretary of state Tuesday night, defeating opponent Vernon Jones, who leaned more into conspiracies over Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.\n\nThe two were competing in an election to replace Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud and the president’s request to “find 11,780 votes” six years ago.\n\nThose claims hovered over Tuesday’s race.\n\nJones had said he believes there were “irregularities” and “violations” in 2020 and he stands “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Of four key points on Jones’ campaign platform, three had to do with election management, including stronger voter identification rules.\n\nFleming tiptoed around the topic, saying there were “irregularities” in 2020 but adding he’s “not running on conspiracy theories.” Of the seven platform points on his campaign website, however, four were focused on election management and one said the state should “make it impossible for the Left to cheat in our elections.”\n\nFleming will face Democrat **Penny Brown Reynolds**, who won her party’s nomination Tuesday.\n\n**Oklahoma governor**\n\nOklahoma’s Republican primary for governor tested Trump’s endorsement in a different way. There, the president weighed in late, throwing his support two weeks ago to former state Sen. **Mike Mazzei** among a crowded field without a clear front-runner. Mazzei secured a spot in a runoff on Aug. 25, finishing nearly even with Attorney General Gentner Drummond.\n\nTrump is used to getting his way, but earlier this month his choice for governor of Iowa, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, lost to Zach Lahn in the state’s primary.\n\n#### Alabama U.S. Senate seat\n\nTrump rose to power as an outsider. What happens when he endorses an insider candidate?\n\nIn Alabama, it worked out for Trump. He successfully backed U.S. Rep. **Barry Moore**, a three-term congressman who has promised to be “a warrior for President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda” if elected to the Senate.\n\nMoore defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson, who presented himself as a Washington outsider and tried to harness the anti-establishment fervor that propelled Trump to power to defeat Trump’s preferred candidate.\n\nAlabama is a Republican stronghold, so the GOP primary victor will be heavily favored to prevail in November.\n\nThe seat is being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee in the race for Alabama governor.\n\n#### DC mayor\n\nOne of the leading Democratic contenders in the District of Columbia mayor’s race, Janeese Lewis George, describes herself as a democratic socialist, a political denomination that became more prominent with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns.\n\nLewis George’s bid for the party’s nomination is not so far removed from democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory for New York City mayor last year. The race has drawn national attention, including the president’s.\n\nTrump indicated days before the mayoral primary election that he might take over the city if Lewis George wins, saying “we won’t put up with it.” Lewis George called Trump’s threat “an attack on democracy itself.”\n\nThe overwhelmingly Democratic city’s relationship to the president is a focal point of the campaign as Trump has exercised broad power over Washington, D.C. That’s included an open-ended deployment of National Guard troops in the streets and his culling of the federal workforce, a chunk of the city’s jobs.\n\nSome residents were frustrated that the mayor, Muriel Bowser, didn’t push back enough on the administration. Part of Lewis George’s platform on her website, which heavily focuses on affordability, is to “protect Home Rule” with “leaders that stand up and fight back, not shrink in the face of injustice.”\n\nThe race was too early to call on Tuesday night, and it could be decided by D.C.’s new ranked choice voting system.\n\nLike a handful of other places, D.C. voters ranked the candidates on a ballot, and if no one crosses 50% of the popular vote, then residents’ second choices come into play. That happened in Maine, where election officials started counting ranked choice votes for governor and a key House race three days after election night.\n\nIn D.C., election officials have warned the new system could delay results by days.\n\n___\n\nCooper reported from Phoenix, and Bedayn from Austin, Texas.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/17/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from-tuesdays-primaries/", "published_at": "2026-06-17 13:13:12+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-17 13:25:56.980861+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Donald Trump", "Rick Jackson", "Burt Jones", "Keisha Lance Bottoms", "Tim Fleming", "Vernon Jones", "Mike Mazzei", "Gentner Drummond"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-cost-to-overcome-a-trump-endorsement-100-million-plus-more-takeaways-from.jsonld"}}