Rick Jackson’s lobbying record complicates outsider image

Billionaire Rick Jackson is running for Georgia governor as a political outsider despite a history of employing and working with D.C. lobbyists.

Jackson is the founder and CEO of Jackson Healthcare, a health care staffing company and products manufacturer based in Alpharetta, GA. He launched his campaign for governor in February and secured the Republican nomination in June.

Jackson frequently cites his business success as a qualification for public office. He told the Shelley Wynter Show in February that he never asked “any legislator” for “one dime or one benefit for our company.” He made similar remarks to the Republican Jewish Commission the following month.

Filings from the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission tell a different story. Between 2015 and 2026, Jackson Healthcare retained at least seven lobbyists to push the company’s interests in state and local government.

One of those lobbyists was Blake Fulenwider, the former deputy commissioner at the state’s Department of Community Health (DCH). Fulenwider lobbied for Jackson Healthcare in 2022 when the company’s subsidiary, Healthcare Workforce Logistics, had its contract renewed with DCH. The company was initially awarded the contract in 2020 as part of a no-bid process.

Congressional records indicate that Jackson Healthcare and its subsidiaries also spent close to $2 million on federal lobbyists between 2014 and 2026. These lobbyists pushed the companies’ interests with the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House.

USAntibotics, a Jackson Healthcare subsidiary that manufactures generic drugs, undertook a major lobbying effort in 2025. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was struggling and only had two options: declare bankruptcy or secure a government contract.

USAntibotics spent $360,000 lobbying the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In June 2026, HHS gave the company a $30 million contract to produce amoxicillin trihydrate, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections.

Between 2020 and 2022, another Jackson Healthcare subsidiary, Avant Health Professionals, spent $360,000 lobbying Congress on a variety of issues, including COVID-19 relief funding legislation that could have given them access to public funds.

This is not the first time Jackson’s business practices have come under scrutiny. The Daily Beast reported this week that Jackson Healthcare spent millions to settle allegations involving unpaid wages and exploitation of foreign-born nurses.

Jackson’s Democratic opponent in the governor’s race is former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. An InsiderAdvantage poll from August showed a tied race.