Trump endorses Burt Jones for Georgia governor at Rome steel rally

Trump delivered a 90-minute speech at Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, 🍑Georgia on February 19, 2026, officially framing the visit as an economic event to promote his steel tariff policy. The plant owner credited a 25% tariff on steel imports — raised to 50% in June 2025 — with driving a boom in business. Trump told the crowd: "Tariffs brought it here."

During the rally, Trump endorsed Lt. Governor BJBurt Jones for governor with his standard phrase: "complete and total endorsement." This was the first major gubernatorial endorsement of the 2026 midterm cycle, issued nine months before the November general election and four months before 🍑Georgia's May 19 Republican primary.

Jones entered the governor's race in July 2025 by loaning himself $10 million. He has served as 🍑Georgia's Lieutenant Governor since January 2023 and previously served in the Georgia State Senate from 2013 to 2023. As a state senator, he was the first Georgia legislator to endorse Trump for president in 2016.

Jones was one of 16 🍑Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate on December 14, 2020, falsely stating that Trump had won Georgia's presidential election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis named him as "Unindicted Co-Conspirator Individual 8" in her 2023 election interference indictment, but she was barred from prosecuting him after a judge ruled she had a conflict of interest. A state-appointed special prosecutor, Pete Skandalakis, reviewed the case and announced in September 2024 that Jones's conduct did not merit criminal charges.

The Republican primary became genuinely competitive in February 2026 when RJRick Jackson, founder and CEO of Jackson Healthcare, entered the race with a pledge to spend $50 million. Jackson launched with a $40 million advertising buy and quickly climbed to the top of some GOP primary polls. Trump criticized Jackson's candidacy at the Rome rally, calling out the challenge to his endorsed candidate directly.

🍑Georgia's Cook Political Report rating is Toss-up — the most competitive designation — making it one of the most closely watched governor's races in the country. Incumbent Republican BKBrian Kemp is term-limited after two terms and cannot seek reelection. Democrat KLKeisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, leads the Democratic primary field with roughly 40% support. Political ratings firm Inside Elections calls the race Tilt Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball rates it Lean Republican.

Trump's relationship with Kemp has been deeply strained since 2020. After Biden's narrow 🍑Georgia win, Trump pressured Kemp to call a special legislative session to replace Georgia's presidential electors. Kemp refused. Trump then recruited former U.S. Senator David Perdue to challenge Kemp in the 2022 Republican primary — Kemp defeated Perdue by nearly 50 percentage points, winning 74% of the primary vote. The feud eventually produced a public detente in 2024, brokered partly by Senator Lindsey Graham and JD Vance.

Political science research on presidential endorsements shows they help candidates win Republican primaries but produce a general election penalty. A study published in Political Behavior (2025) found that Trump's endorsed candidates received a consistent, substantial benefit in Republican primaries but an aggregate vote-share penalty of approximately 1.5 percentage points in general elections. In a Toss-up state like 🍑Georgia, a 1.5-point swing is more than sufficient to decide a race. Separately, academic research on nationalization of gubernatorial elections (Sievert and McKee, 2019) finds presidential vote choice increasingly predicts gubernatorial outcomes, reducing the space for state-specific candidate advantages.

The Rome rally was also Trump's reconfirmation of CFClay Fuller, a district attorney, as his endorsee in 🍑Georgia's 14th Congressional District special election. Early voting for that March 10 election had begun on February 16. The layering of an economic speech, congressional endorsement, and gubernatorial endorsement into a single event reflects a deliberate White House midterm strategy — using official-adjacent appearances to maximize political capital without triggering Hatch Act restrictions that apply to federal employees below the presidential level.