WASHINGTON — Brian Jack, the newest member of Georgia’s congressional delegation, arrived on the job already knowing more than just about anyone on the planet about the history and intrigue at the U.S. Capitol.
A constituent who visited recently heard stories from the Peachtree City Republican about the huge, historic paintings that hang in the rotunda, and Jack pointed out for her where Abraham Lincoln’s desk was located during his one and only term in Congress.
A history buff, Jack stored all these facts and anecdotes from his summer internship 17 years ago for his hometown congressman, U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Today, the 37-year-old is a few months into his first term in Westmoreland’s old seat.
This full-circle moment is the latest chapter in a political career that started for Jack at Peachtree City Hall and took him to the White House as a top aide to President Donald Trump during the president’s first term. He remains close with the president, so much so that Trump recognized him publicly on two consecutive days earlier this month — a rarity for any member of Congress, let alone someone who was sworn in a little over three months ago.
The first was at a White House celebration. The second came during a fundraising dinner for the House Republican campaign committee where Jack is the first freshman to be a deputy chair.
“Great job,” the president gushed during his remarks at the dinner. “Proud of you, Brian.”
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jack’s fellow first-term Republicans also elected him to represent them on the panel that determines the House committees they all serve on. And he is the only freshman serving on the powerful Rules Committee, which determines the bills that come to the floor for a vote.
Mix all of that with his deep ties to Trump, and it appears Jack has the ingredients of a rising star. One of his predecessors in Georgia’s delegation, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, credited for reshaping the Republican Party in 1990s, said Jack has the potential to be a huge influencer.
“People need to really watch him because he is not just hardworking and smart in a normal sense, but he’s experienced and he’s creative,” Gingrich said. “And I think people are going to see in the next few years just what an impact he has both on Georgia and on the country.”
A political mind
Two decades ago, Jack was a college student studying political science and international studies at Pepperdine University when he had an a-ha moment while watching news coverage of the midterm election results. Jack and his friends began talking about their political science professor and how he seemed to know details of every race on the ballot in every state.
“I made a mental note at that time that I wish that I had that knowledge of all the congressional districts and all the congressional contours that were on the television screen,” he said. “I think that spurred a lot of political interest.”
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Jack interned at Peachtree City Hall with the mayor that summer. The next year, he was a congressional intern in Washington giving Westmoreland’s constituents tours of the U.S. Capitol. After he graduated college in 2010, he went to work at the Republican Party’s national headquarters and then for pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
In 2015, Ben Carson hired him to work on his presidential campaign, Jack’s first national race. When Carson dropped out and endorsed Trump, Jack became Trump’s national delegate director. Trump tasked him with ensuring the delegates he won in each state remained committed to him through the 2016 Republican National Convention. At the time, Trump was unpopular with establishment Republicans, and there were rumors his primary victory could be contested.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles worked with Jack during that campaign and said he proved his value many times over the years.
“He came to me in 2016 seasoned, smart and informed — which is in my mind is different than smart — strong where he needed to be, deferential where he needed to be, and we won a state we weren’t supposed to win,” Wiles said, referring to Florida, a key battleground in that election.
Wiles says Jack has developed the sharpest political mind she has ever seen, describing him the way he once spoke about his professor at Pepperdine.
“Brian Jack is the ESPN of Republican politics,” Wiles said. “There’s not a stat he doesn’t know. There’s not a piece of history he doesn’t know. He could tell you about a County Commission race about as easily as a Senate race. I’ve never seen it anywhere else, ever. And the president availed himself of Brian’s knowledge all the time.”
Jack became one of Trump’s regional campaign managers in the final stretch of the 2016 general election, responsible for the states of Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. After Trump was elected president in November, Jack worked on the transition team and then accepted a job at the White House. Trump made him his political director in 2019.
When Trump left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, Jack was one of the few staffers who had remained by his side the full four years. Even after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, when the president was accused by some Republicans of not doing enough to quell his supporters’ outrage, Jack stuck beside him.
“House Democrats impeached him twice, and at every turn, I saw people abandon the president,” Jack said. “But in my mind, I wanted to see the job … through and wanted to be a part of his postpresidential political ambitions to return the White House four years later.”
Jack continued working for Trump’s political operation and also took a job with then-House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. Jack was by McCarthy’s side when Republicans won the majority in 2022 and during the 15 rounds of voting in January 2023 that ultimately resulted in McCarthy becoming speaker.
By that time, Trump had launched his third bid for the White House and named the three people to lead his campaign: Wiles, Chris LaCivita and Jack.
“It was a very small group of us during those early days, but it was incredibly special to travel the country with him,” Jack said.
He left Trump’s campaign after Super Tuesday when it was clear he would be the GOP nominee in 2024. But that was only because Jack had decided to launch a campaign of his own.
The Trump candidate
Trump’s shoutout to Jack earlier this month during the National Republican Congressional Committee’s fundraising dinner occurred in the sprawling atrium of the National Building Museum.
Even though Jack was one of the most junior members in attendance, Trump was effusive in his praise.
“Brian Jack, who was with me from day one of my political career, he was so fantastic,” the president said.
Trump and Jack bonded over sports through the years, sharing phone calls the morning after a particularly exciting game or by attending mixed martial arts or boxing matches together.
Trump told the NRCC crowd about his conversation with Jack as the two sat in Las Vegas watching a UFC fight. Jack had decided to run for the seat representing his hometown after incumbent U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson decided not to seek another term, and he wanted Trump’s blessing.
“I said, ‘Well, you got my endorsement.’ And he won by a lot, and he’s never looked back,” Trump told the crowd. “He’s a fantastic guy and a great political leader.”
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the Trump candidate, Jack quickly emerged as the front-runner in a five-man Republican field. He beat state Sen. Mike Dugan in the runoff with 63% of the vote and then easily beat the Democrat in the general election on the same 2024 ballot where Trump carried Georgia on his way to reclaiming the White House.
While most House freshmen spend their first term or two learning the ropes, Jack is the only first-term lawmaker on Rules and is one of the only freshmen chairing a subcommittee.
His busy Washington schedule has left little time for Jack to decorate his office in the Longworth House Office Building, a suite once occupied by Lyndon Baines Johnson before he was elected president.
Jack said his office at the White House remained sparsely decorated even at the end of his four years there. But for his new office, he hopes what does make it on display will showcase his accomplishments in Congress.
“I would love to see pieces of legislation hanging on the walls that we get passed for the district,” he said.
The first one is on the way. Sort of.
The Senate on Thursday signed off on legislation rolling back a clean energy regulation implemented in the final days of the Biden administration that banned a specific kind of gas-powered water heater. The only factory making these tankless water heaters is the Rinnai America Corporation facility in Griffin in Jack’s district.
Jack learned that 500 employees could be laid off if the rule remained in place and became one of the chief champions of the rollback legislation, although not the primary sponsor of the bill. So when Trump signs it into law, which is expected in the coming days, it technically won’t be Jack’s first bill.
But he treats it the same way. A paper showing the 221-198 House vote on the legislation is framed and sitting on his desk. He loves that it received bipartisan support with 11 Democrats voting yes, although none from Georgia.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Nathan Posner for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jack said he is open to working across the aisle where it makes sense, and he has struck up a friendship with the freshman Democrat representing the district west of his on the other side of the Alabama border, Rep. Shomari Figures.
Both men were former White House aides — Figures worked for President Barack Obama — and both parlayed those deep party ties into seats in Congress. During new member orientation, they bonded over being congressional neighbors and shared passions like improving rural health care.
“We both represent districts that have significantly similar elements to them, and we’re just looking for things to try to work together on to improve lives,” Figures said.
But some Democrats in Jack’s Third Congressional District say they want to see more of him. CaMia Jackson, chair of the Fayette County Democratic Party, has invited Jack to attend an in-person town hall meeting to answer questions from constituents that includes those who disagree with him politically.
Republicans have been encouraged not to host in-person town halls, and those who do have often faced questions from people angry about Trump’s policies since returning to office. Jack has not hosted any town halls since being elected, but neither have most other Republicans in the delegation. He will not attend the Fayette event.
“Everything I’ve heard has been that he is not visible in the community, definitely not participating in anything where he may be in a situation where he’s surrounded by Democratic constituents,” Jackson said.
But former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who hired Jack as a political aide in 2021 and credits him with helping House Republicans retake the majority in 2022, has nothing but praise for his protégé.
“If I was looking for leaders for the future, it’s easy you would pick Brian,” he said. “But you don’t have to wait for the future. He’s already a leader in Congress.”
Jack said his focus is less on the future and more on serving his constituents in a district that includes south metro Atlanta and West Georgia. It’s a bonus if he can help Republicans grow their majority and carry out Trump’s agenda during his second term in the White House.
“If at the end of these next four years, people say Congressman Brian Jack was an incredibly effective representative for our district,” he said, “I’ll feel very much like we’ve accomplished our goal.”
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