Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones campaigns for Governor in Darien on Thursday

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones made a campaign stop in Darien on Thursday afternoon on his race against Rick Jackson in the June 16 General Primary Runoff. The event was held at Skipper’s Fish Camp where a healthy local crowd gathered. State Representative Buddy DeLoach and State Senator Mike Hodges welcomed Jones to the community.

Jones told the group, “We’ve got a big race coming up this week, and I know nobody’s gotten any mailers or anything. No way, no mailers. We’ve got no, no TV commercials. Y’all ain’t making any of those. I know, I know, I look taller than what what I appear on TV, you know. And, but it has been a, it’s been a long primary season. We were very excited about the outcome a couple weeks ago. We won 127 counties out of 159 and we’re very proud of them, because we didn’t have by accident. It’s because a good grassroots organization is because people, and in towns like McIntosh County, where we had people, boots on the ground, people knew us, people who had worked with us, and they knew exactly what kind of person I am as a, as an elected official, as well as just an individual, as well.

“It has been a rather nasty campaign, and it’s been very expensive. In fact, we’ve had over $200 million spent against us at this, at this moment in time, and, and I can tell you right now, not many people will be able to be standing still on something like that, but it is because of the relationships that we have in counties all over the state. There’s a reason why we were successful, and we’re going to be successful again on Tuesday.

“But for those of you who do not know me, I am I am Burt Jones. I’m from a little town in Middle Georgia, Butts County, Jackson, Georgia, born and raised there. I grew up on a cattle farm there, so we still have today, and I still live there today. I went to the University of Georgia. and went to back home, started working in our company, Jones Petroleum Company. It’s a family-run business. I work with my siblings, my father, who’s here, he’s the one that started it, and, and we’re very proud of it. When people talk about, they want a business person for the, for the next governor, I tell them, look, I’m your business guy. I’ve been doing it for quite some time. I know exactly what it’s like to make payroll, know exactly what it’s like to sign the front of the check.

“We got about 2500 employees right there in Middle Georgia, so I have a very good understanding about how business operates and the different ones that we have, and I’ve always tried to bring a business mentality to state government, when I was in the state senate, I would always look at things. When we pass new laws or regs, I would always look at it from a business perspective of how it would affect us as individuals or families or businesses, and that’s how I’ve always looked at things. So, when I ran for lieutenant governor, I said, “We’re going to work on kitchen table issues, we’re going to work on issues that are lower in taxes, lowering regulations, given better access to health care, particularly in rural areas, as well as educational opportunities. When we passed school choice, I was one of the first ones to do that in 20 years. We also worked on economic development, and we also worked on workforce development in our K through 12 system, as well as in our technical colleges, as well. So I’m very proud of the record that I have. In fact, I have probably one of the most conservative records in the Senate when I was in the state senate, and I have one of the most conservative records there.

“Every piece of legislation that we had trouble passing, which I call the common sense conservative legislation. we got done in my time as Lieutenant Governor, four years in a row, we lower the state income tax. I’d like to see us go to zero. We capped property taxes this past year. I would like to see us do more to eliminate homeowners property taxes in the future, reduce that. And then there is a way to doing that. You can’t do it like a dictator. I can tell you that right now. You have to have legislature on your side, so you have to be able to work with the House and the Senate on issues on regarding tax issues. We also, like I said, we passed school choice. We were number one in the state for over a decade now, and I want to continue to Georgia has had a really, really good run, and, and we’re the envy of a lot of states here in this country right now, and it’s because of good, common sense leadership that we’ve had, and the governor’s office, as well as in the legislative branch, Governor Kemp and Deal before him, and Sonny Perdue before him, and we’ve had good legislators like Buddy Loach and Mike Hodges and I think that makes a difference.

“The states that are doing the best right now in this country are Georgia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, the Carolinas. They’re growing in population, they’re growing in economic opportunities, and the states are losing population and losing people, New York, Illinois, California, Virginia. It’s not hard to see those are blue run states versus red run states, right? So, why, why am I talking about that? Because this election cycle, Tuesday’s vote, you get to determine who your best option is for November, because Georgia is ground zero once again, in the political arena, it is ground zero.

“There will literally be a billion dollars that will be put into the state of Georgia to try to flip the governor’s chair, as well as try to retain that US Senate seat. And I know that sounds like a lot of money, but trust me, that’s how much they’re going to, that’s how much they’re going to put into this state in this cycle, and they’ve already determined who their candidate is on both for governor as well as for US Senate. So, you got Keisha Lance Bottoms, and you got John Ossoff, and I will tell you right now, they are beatable. Both of them are beatable. However, if you pick the wrong person, then we will lose. I can assure you that, and I am the only person, because I’m the one that’s got a track record, number one, but I’m the only conservative in this race. I don’t know if y’all know that, and the best way to tell that is, I always tell people, if you want to look what somebody’s going to do in the future, just look what they’ve done in the past.

“All right, my, in my past, I’ve cut taxes, I’ve been for voter integrity. I have, you know, passed things like school opportunities. We’ve been invested in education, economic opportunities, everything else. We’ve had to take on those social fights like boys out of girls sports. We got that done. We had to take on those social fights, like not allowing doctors to do trans surgeries on minors. I couldn’t believe we’ve had to take up some of these issues in Georgia, but we’ve had to, because we’ve had an influx of very progressive thinking Democrats, and the person that I’m running against is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I can assure you that he’s donated to Stacey Abrams, he’s donated to John Ossoff, he’s donated organizations like Planned Parenthood, and so on and so forth. He, he’s, he’s also donated to people like Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley when they ran against President Bush, I mean, President Trump. Now I have, and on the other side of things, I’ve been in the trenches fighting for conservative issues. In 2020 I was the one that stood up said something was wrong with this election. We need to investigate it. And guess what I got for that? I got chased by Fannie Willis for two and a half years, and I was the first one to beat her in court, and then her case fell apart. So, but I’m the only one that’s actually taking the shots from the left and the right, and at 22 I was campaigning all over the state, trying to make sure conservatives, Republicans stayed in office statewide, and at 24, I was the only one in this race who was going around, not just the state of Georgia, but around the country, trying to get President Donald Trump reelected, and because of that he is doing a tele town hall for me tonight, because he’s weighing in one more time, because all the different disinformation that’s been put out there in this race. When, when I’ve had, I’ve had this person tell anybody he’s endorsed by Trump, I have the Trump endorsement, I’ve had him tell people he’s endorsed by Governor Kemp. He is not, you know, and all. And so, when somebody is trying to flood the zone with a lot of deception and a lot of misinformation, you got to ask the question why. You got to ask the question, why? As they’re willing to spend $200 million to win a governor’s chair, might want to ask the question that question. And if he’s so cavalier with his money, I’ll imagine what he do with your money, you know, and because the this, so this race is very, very important that we, that we elect a true conservative, both here in this race as well as the US Senate race, and I will tell you that the only reason why I’ve been able to survive the amount of money and amount of negative ads that have been thrown against us is because of the because the relationships that I have built through business, through political arenas, whatever, around this state. There is a reason why 100 over 100 sheriffs have endorsed me in this state. There’s a reason why all the Republican senators, as well as majority of the House members, have endorsed me in this state. There is a reason why majority of the business leaders in this state, in all 159 counties, are supporting me.

“And there is a reason why the President, United States, and the Vice President, I say, are supporting me. It’s not because it’s not because I gave them campaign contributions. It’s because I have built real relationships with them, and they, and they know me. They know my moral compass. They know I’m a man who says it says exactly what he’s going to do, and I follow through with it. And I can tell you right now, all the commercials you see that you would think I was Pablo Escobar. I mean, letting cartel members out of prison. I’ll be honest with you, I couldn’t get you out of a speeding ticket, but, but, and, but they’ve been throwing that out there, and people have actually been confused about who to vote for because of it, right?

“So, what this election will boil down to is when people are uncertain about who to vote for, when people are don’t really know, because they don’t know who to trust or what to believe on TV and mailers, or whatever else. The race will be won with people like here in this room right here. It’s not going to be won with a TV ad, it’s not going to be won with endorsements, it’s not going to be won with mailers. It is going to be won with people like you in this room that keep up with politics, because if it hadn’t already happened to you already, your friends, your family members are going to be coming up to you, and they’re going to be saying, Who do we vote for? That’s how you can tell if they’re really southern too, is who do we vote for, not you guys, who you guys going to be for is who do we vote for, right? And when you can sit there and tell them, you know what, I went down, I went down to the local restaurant, and I heard Bert Jones. I like what he said, he seems like the genuine article. I think I’m going to go vote for it, and then that person, nine times out of 10, is going to go vote for the person you tell them to, and so if you want to be helpful to me, number one, I hope you’ll be willing to vote for it. That’s number one. If you’re not willing to vote for it, I’m gonna keep praying for you, and you’ll come to your senses before Tuesday, I’m sure. But if you want to help me, the most powerful thing you could do between now and Tuesday, go ahead and beat your friends to the punch. Get on your phones and you text them, alright? You text them, and not a group text, not a Facebook folks post or Instagram. You get on the phone, you text or call your friends, your family members, the people you care about, maybe even some of the ones you don’t like. You call them and you say, I’m going to vote for Burt Jones. Early voting has already started. Election day is on Tuesday. We need you to get out and vote. We need to go out and vote in a big way. I think I think he is the most trusted person in this race, and I think he’ll do a good job as governor. And I can assure you this: if you elect me to be your nominee, number one, we’ll win in November, but number two, I won’t let you down as governor, because I am the candidate who number one lives outside of Metro Atlanta. I don’t know if y’all know that or not. I’ve been the only candidate that’s lived outside of Metro Atlanta during this whole race, Republican and Democrat. Rest of these guys couldn’t spell outside 285 if they wanted to, but I am, and I’m only one that actually understands the Georgia economy, and, and the complexity of the Georgia economy. I mean, right, you know, we have, we have the coast, obviously, and all the economic opportunities come from here, but we also have the agriculture business, which is still our number one business in the, in the, in the state right now. I come from an ag background, having grown up on a cattle farm, but, and also we have manufacturing, we have wholesale, we have retail, we have logistics, you know, we have hospitality, we have entertainment, all those things from Russell to Blue Ridge. I have been to every county in this state and understand what is going on in this state and what needs to happen, and for our state to continue to grow and our state to continue to thrive, we need good, common sense, business-minded leadership that understands that. And look, we haven’t done everything perfect, and we’re going to work on those things, you know. We, I want to put more money back in your pockets, and I do. I want to put more money, that means I want to continue to cut taxes, I want to continue on property and income, I want to continue to cut regulation. We’ve got to do something about insurance calls, right.

“We’ve got to do something about insurance calls, because it is killing businesses and is killing individuals right now. And when I know how to address that through tort reform, we’ve got to have better access to health care facilities, especially in rural communities, right. And so I have been a champion of that since I’ve been as lieutenant governor, and so, and if, like I said, if we want to continue down the road of success, which Georgia is very fortunate, we’ve got to $14 billion in rainy day funds, we’re 2% unemployment, and we, and we have literally companies wanting to come here by the, by the dozens, and they want to come here because Georgia is a great place to live, work, and raise a family, and I’m from the state of Georgia.

“I want my children, I want my grandchildren and your grandchildren, your children be afforded the same opportunities that we have been afforded in this great state, and the only way that happens is we’ve got to get out and we’ve got to be mobilized as voters and individuals, and it starts with today, tomorrow, and on Tuesday, and quite frankly, we’ve been, we’ve been lagging behind in last election cycle, so we’ve got to be energized come November, because it is too important right now.

Darien attorney Ad Poppell said to Jones, “I want you to know that McIntosh County appreciates your continued support in trying to do something about state-owned properties and compensate these counties. Camden and Long County face similar issues. We appreciate what you’re doing, sir.”

Jones replied: “Yeah, so if y’all know what he’s talking about, I appreciate you saying that. So, there’s a lot of counties, and McIntosh County is one of them, where there’s a lot of federal and state property that’s not on the voter roll, I mean, not on the property tax rolls, and so that is a, as an issue when you, it becomes a burden on the citizens that are here, obviously, and so we have in the past tried to supplement McIntosh County at the state level because of all the 1000s of acres that are in state property and obviously is owned by the state, so we’re going to have to come up with a long term fix for those counties that have that issue, but we’ve been able and successful at trying to help McIntosh County out.”