Rick Jackson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Richard L. Jackson 1954 or 1955 (age 71–72) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder and CEO of Jackson Healthcare |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Melody |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | rickjackson |
Richard L. Jackson (born 1954 or 1955 [1] ) is an American businessman who founded and leads Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare staffing and services company based in Alpharetta, Georgia. [2] He is a candidate in the 2026 Georgia gubernatorial election Republican primary. [3] [1]
Jackson has described a childhood in Midtown Atlanta marked by poverty and later time in the foster care system. [4] [5] [6] [7] He graduated from Greater Atlanta Christian School and attended Lipscomb University in Nashville to study business before dropping out due to financial difficulties. [8] [9]
Jackson founded his first medical recruitment business in 1978. [4]
In 2012, Jackson, with Atlanta-area businessmen Michael Kendrick and Larry Powell, purchased Family Christian Stores from Madison Dearborn Partners. [10] The company was converted to a nonprofit and made a subsidiary of Family Christian Resource Centers (FCRC), controlled by Jackson. A plan by Jackson in 2015 to restructure Family Christian Stores was opposed by the U.S. Trustee Office and initially rejected by a bankruptcy judge. [11] [12] [13]
Jackson co-established Jackson Acquisitions with Jeb Bush; Bush was chairman and Jackson was CEO. [14] They dissolved the SPAC in 2023. [15]
The Internal Revenue Service sued Jackson Investment Group LLC in 2024 for underreporting $72 million in taxable income for 2019, seeking $38 million. [16]
In 2000, Jackson founded Jackson Healthcare, which provides healthcare staffing and related workforce services. [2] [17] [18]
The company opened a new $100 million campus in March 2019, designed by architectural firm Rule Joy Trammell Rubio (RJTR) and styled after an Italian piazza. [19] [4] [20]
Jackson Healthcare earned nearly $1 billion from 2020 through 2026 — most during the COVID-19 pandemic — from various Georgia agencies through state contracts. [21]
In 2021, Jackson Healthcare purchased USAntibiotics, an antibiotics manufacturer in Bristol, Tennessee. [3] [4] Jackson Healthcare acquired Omaha-based LRS Healthcare in May 2023. [22]
Jackson Healthcare is privately-held and reports more than $3 billion in annual revenue. [3] John Bardis, Jeb Bush, and Tom Price are on the advisory board. [23] [24]
In the 2010s, Jackson paid to promote an unsuccessful overhaul of Georgia medical malpractice claims, and wanted to privatize the state's foster care system. He gave $1 million to Trump's Make America Great Again Inc. in December 2025. [24]
Georgia GOP activist Eric Tanenblatt, who has worked for Jackson, in 2026 called Jackson "rock-solid conservative" and "obviously a successful business person". [24]
In February 2026, Jackson announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia and said he would self-fund a major portion of his campaign. [3] [25] [26] [27] He wants to freeze Georgia's property tax and cut the state's income tax in half. Describing his stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in an interview with WSB-TV, Jackson said, "I believe in diversity and inclusion. I don't believe in equity. I don't believe in equal outcomes, period," calling the latter "communism". [28] He supports increasing prescription drug manufacturing in the United States. [29]
Jackson has said that if elected, his company's state contracts would be unwound. [30]
Jackson's campaign ads initially focused on introducing himself to voters and comparing himself to President Donald Trump; an ad attacking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as "Judas" and saying Raffensperger "turned on his own kind" aired in the Washington, D.C. and West Palm Beach media markets — likely in an effort to flatter Trump. [31] Jackson was one of several donors who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on February 28, hours after Trump began strikes causing the 2026 Iran war. [32]
In March 2026, rival primary candidate Burt Jones launched an attack ad stating that Jackson "made his fortune recruiting for Planned Parenthood" and "helping doctors perform transgender procedures on minors" through his medical companies, namely LocumTenens. Jackson sued Jones for defamation in response. [33] [24]
Jackson's campaign also launched a telephone hotline, asking the public to report "unethical and suspicious activity" by Jones. [34]
In the past, Jackson supported various Republican candidates in Georgia. [32] [24] [35] Fox News reported that Jackson donated $2,700 to Liz Cheney's PAC The Great Task weeks after Donald Trump's second impeachment. [36] Georgia political activist Debbie Dooley told the Associated Press, "My Chihuahua Izzy is closer to being MAGA than Rick Jackson is." [24]
He campaigned in Pooler in early March 2026. [37] In an interview with Savannah-area WTOC-TV, Jackson said he would travel to Israel to attract tech firms and that he was "very pro data center" while arguing against giving them tax credits, and noted the potential of artificial intelligence in Georgia's government operations. [38] Jackson said in Smyrna that Georgia needed to "reject" the "religion of woke ideology". [39]
In Blakely, Jackson told a crowd, "When you respect police, and you do what they say, you don't get shot." [40] Speaking in Thomasville, he said people on welfare should instead attend technical school, and called "getting $15 an hour on welfare" one of several "perverse incentives": [41]
[Making people reliant on the government is] the most dehumanizing thing we can do. When you're working and being productive, you're thinking of someone else — you're thinking of the customer, your employer, or your coworkers instead of yourself.
Jackson has spent at least $30 million on television ads, the largest amount ever spent on a gubernatorial primary race in Georgia. [24] Campaign spokespeople include Dave Abrams and Mike Schrimpf. [31] [36] [34]
Jackson lives in Cumming, Georgia, in a 47,000-square-foot (4,400 m2) mansion known as "Le Rêve". [42] [43] He and his wife Melody ( née Moore [44] ) have three children. [4] Shane Jackson is president of Jackson Healthcare, and Chad Jackson runs the Jackson Family Foundation. [19] [26]
Jackson co-produced the film 90 Minutes in Heaven (2015). [4] He is a Christian. [24]
'Physicians are retiring in large numbers just as baby boomers are starting to turn 65,' Richard L. Jackson, chairman and CEO of Jackson Healthcare said.