When former President Donald Trump arrived in Atlanta earlier this month for a high-dollar fundraiser, he seemed joined at the hip with a lower-profile former aide trying to make a big impact in Georgia politics.

For years, Brian Jack has toiled in the shadows as an aide to a range of GOP luminaries, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, onetime presidential contender Ben Carson and, most notably, Trump himself.

Now he’s stepping into the political spotlight to run for Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District, backed by an alliance of MAGA warriors and other national figures such as McCarthy who are uniting to back his first bid for public office.

But the race for the deeply conservative west Georgia-based seat isn’t his for the taking. Jack faces fierce opposition from local figures who downplay Trump’s endorsement and brand Jack as a naïve carpetbagger more comfortable in Washington than rural Whitesburg.

The May 21 primary serves as a test of Trump’s mettle in a conservative part of Georgia where he’s depending on surging turnout in November to beat President Joe Biden and swing the state back into the GOP column.

The contest will be closely watched for other reasons, too. It’s the most competitive U.S. House race on the Georgia ballot after a court-ordered redistricting left Georgia with a Republican-drawn map devoid of swing districts.

It’s the only open congressional seat in Georgia this year and the only one featuring a full-fledged campaign. Challengers to Democratic U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and David Scott have raised little cash and earned scant attention for their long-shot bids.

By contrast, the race for the 3rd District has attracted a bevy of contenders with deep local roots striving to succeed U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, a dentist retiring after four terms. Former state Sen. Mike Crane, ex-state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan and former state Rep. Philip Singleton are all among Jack’s top GOP rivals. Two Democrats are also competing.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

There aren’t many major policy differences between the Republicans in this deep-red district spanning the western outskirts of Atlanta to the Alabama line. Each supports Trump’s comeback and pledges to rein in federal spending, crack down on illegal immigration and block President Joe Biden’s policies. That makes the race a battle over style as much as substance.

“Their positions are all the same, to be frank,” said Republican state Sen. Matt Brass, who hasn’t picked sides in the contest. “The differentiator is their leadership style. Do you want a combative candidate or a commonsense conservative?”

Jack, a Fayette County native, is positioning himself in the latter camp. He’s poured money into TV and digital ads featuring Trump’s blessing and sticks mostly to tried-and-true red-meat issues at GOP meetings across the district.

Dugan is taking a similar tack, avoiding much of the red-meat rhetoric common on the campaign trail. In one instance, Dugan expressed sympathy for those “fleeing an inhospitable situation” even as he urged stricter border controls to deter illegal migration.

His mantra to voters: “I’ll be a congressman you can be proud of.”

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Crane and Singleton aren’t fire-breathing conservatives in the mold of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose far-right stances have made her a national brand. But both come from an ultraconservative wing that relishes fights with the establishment. And both aren’t afraid to confront Jack despite his association with Trump.

At one forum, Singleton turned to an empty seat representing an absent Jack and asked: “Do you really think that you’re going to be able to sit in your D.C. penthouse and buy this election?”

A Trump ‘insider’

Jack, who would be Georgia’s youngest House member at 36, was no bit player in Trump’s orbit. He joined Trump’s campaign in 2016 after Carson’s bid for president collapsed and was assigned the painstaking task of wrangling delegates ahead of the GOP convention.

He later was tapped as director of Trump’s office of political affairs, part of a small group of aides who staffed the then-president from the campaign trail until his final day in the White House. In 2021, Jack took a similar job with McCarthy before rejoining Trump’s comeback bid.

Since announcing his bid for office shortly before March qualifying ended, Jack has leaned heavily on Trump and a core of MAGA partisans to promote his campaign.

Three of Trump’s top allies in Georgia — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and state Sen. Brandon Beach — have all endorsed Jack. Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, a prominent Trump loyalist, hosted a fundraiser for Jack on Monday.

“When you elect Brian Jack, you’re going to have a great representative here,” Lake said to a crowd of about 125 in Columbus. “And when you elect President Trump on Nov. 5, we’re going to start making America great again.”

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Trump also promoted Jack as a future “fantastic congressman” in between fielding questions about Arizona’s abortion ban and the Fulton County election interference case as he arrived in Atlanta for a fundraiser earlier this month.

Not long ago, Trump dialed up Jack as he was talking to the Centralhatchee Council. Jack put Trump on speaker as the former president told the small-town officials he was “sad” to lose his longtime aide. (“You got my vote,” someone in the room promptly promised Jack.)

Jack’s deep Washington connections have opened him to attacks that he’s a creature of the Capitol funded by out-of-state interests. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed about 80% of Jack’s itemized contributions came from outside Georgia. His rivals, meanwhile, took most of their hauls from in-state donors.

“One dollar from Georgia speaks louder to me than $100 from D.C. insiders,” said Crane, whose notable support includes an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and the Frost family, prominent players in west Georgia conservative politics.

‘A real shot?’

But Crane and the others have had to strike a tricky balance as they strive to paint Jack as a swampy conservative while avoiding chastising Trump.

At one conservative forum, Singleton blamed Jack for the White House’s pushback on Gov. Brian Kemp for “opening Georgia during COVID” without mentioning it was Trump who initiated those attacks.

And though the race is likely to head to a June 18 runoff between Jack and another rival, longtime Republicans say the dynamics are volatile.

“If money and endorsements win the race, it’s going to Brian,” said former U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who represented parts of the territory in Congress for six terms. “If it’s a grassroots-driven race, the others have a real shot.”

That’s what Jack’s rivals are hoping. Crane is focusing on outreach to evangelical supporters. Dugan is concentrating on retail politicking and can claim a share of credit for dozens of GOP policies passed during his stint as a Senate leader.

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Singleton, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, emphasizes his more pugilistic side. Even before he ran for office, he was a vocal critic of then-state House speaker David Ralston and other GOP leaders he considered too moderate. His defiance led Republicans to draw him out of his Sharpsburg-based state House district in 2021, a move he wears as a badge of honor now.

“The message is simply that Washington is broken, but the country is not,” Singleton said. “We’re the only candidate that has a record that’s proven over and over again — and the only candidate willing to take the arrows against bad policy.”

With little reliable polling in the district, Brass said the race may come down to “word of mouth.” Westmoreland, too, said the personal touch might wind up the difference-maker.

“The retail politics in that district really does matter,” Westmoreland said. “It’s still a place where you have to go, shake hands and kiss babies.”