Sandy Springs hotel hosts Rick Jackson watch party

Businessman Rick Jackson will also be gathering with his supporters this evening to watch the returns come in. And for the Jackson campaign, they are hopeful it'll be a victorious night. Let's get out to our Doug Evans with the Jackson campaign's watch party for us live this afternoon. Doug. Hey there, Tom. We're at the Western Hotel in Sandy Springs, the King and Queen building, just off to my right, out the doors there. This is where the Jackson campaign will be watching the election night. Numbers come in. Not many people here yet, as this party will get started later on this evening. The room opens up to the press and others starting at five o'clock. So we're here in a hallway right now, just kind of watching the happenings. Right now, as some of the campaign workers have been filtering in to start their duties ahead of the night. For the candidate himself, he voted in Forsyth with his wife, Melody Moore Jackson, a professor at Georgia Tech, Go Jackets. I can say that because I put two kids through there. I think I... I'll get that right after emptying my wallet for well over 10 years, Tom, to that institution. And so they voted. He normally votes absentee. But he said he voted today in person, said it was a good experience for him, reaffirms his faith in the Georgia voting process and the integrity of the election system. And so he took an opportunity to talk about that. He has echoed the words of Brian Kemp all along, that Georgia was a state that was easy to vote and hard to cheat. And he said that as well this morning. Now, this voting this morning, that caps a rather intense targeted ground campaign. A campaign by Rick Jackson across South Georgia and coastal Georgia over the last couple of weeks. He has appeared alongside Governor Brian Kemp, who is widely popular in those areas, as he is widely popular throughout the state. That high-profile joint tour served kind of a specific purpose, a dual purpose for one thing. The internal numbers for the campaign and the early voting data has showed a lagging There's a lagging turnout in the rural and coastal areas, critical for any conservative. Any conservative running for statewide office needs to pull off wide margins in South Georgia and the coastal areas, as they should, as they historically do. But with these lagging early voting numbers that they're looking at, they needed to work hard down there to shore up that support over the last couple of weeks. Jackson also looking to bridge. post-primary divides within the Republican Party. You remember that it was a heated runoff election between him and Burt Jones, so he had to do a lot of work there as well. Out on the trail, Jackson has coupled that get-out-the-vote message with his high-profile issues of the economy and also agriculture issues that are so important to rural Georgia, especially with the Trump tariffs. of the last couple of years. So, not much going on right now here at the Westin Hotel. I can offer you an observation as I've been standing here in this hallway over the past couple of hours and watching people come down the steps. I've seen a lot of young people. A lot of young people in their red hoodies saying Jackson for Governor. A lot of young people in their pullovers saying the same thing. So, kudos to the Jackson campaign Thank you very much. Getting so much young people's support in here for his campaign, putting them to work already, getting the ballroom all set up, folding t-shirts and doing other things. You can see some of the security back there. They'll be doing sweeps later on, and they'll be letting us in to the ballroom starting at 5 o'clock, and that's where we will give you a front row seat to tonight's action as the Rick Jackson campaign gets ready to watch these numbers come in. Tom? Yeah, Doug. The gubernatorial race in particular has been a real nail-biter. I mean, I think it's down to a scintilla of a percentage point between these two candidates. The final poll that our Insider Advantage folks, we're going to be talking to Matt Towery, by the way, the CEO of Insider Advantage here, coming up at the bottom of the hour to further analyze these polls. But this has been the one, in our state anyway, That's been the real nail biter, as opposed to the Senate race, where you have a bit of a wider gap between Ossoff and Collins. But you're right. It's going to be all about turnout. And while the early voting numbers for the Republicans may not look so great, there is historical data to indicate that Republicans like to turn out on Election Day. I'm going to ask. And by the way, it's two to one. You put two kids through tech. I put one. And I'm not done yet. He's got another year to go. So my checks are continuing to be written. My wallet is more empty than yours. Indeed it is. But do we know where Rick Jackson and his wife are going to be watching the returns? Come in tonight? Is it going to be there where you are? Yeah, I think that's going to be here, Tom. But I did want to make one point. You mentioned Matt Towery. You mentioned Insider Advantage. You mentioned how close this race is. Let's take you back to 2018. Let's take you back to Matt Towery in 2018 with the Fox 5 poll, which Insider Advantage, as you know, did. That had Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp neck and neck at 47%, right? How did that election turn out? We know how it turned out. Brian Kemp won it with 1.4 percentage points. Not much there to spare. 1 percent, that's all it took. 54,000 votes statewide in 2018. So I keep... I'm thinking that it looks like the 2018, when we look at the poll numbers, but my friend off to my left here that you know, Eric Lin, our photographer, who I have covered many, many decades of elections with, says no, this is 2002. Interesting, Sonny Perdue and Roy Barnes in his estimation, where you have a political outsider. Although I'll argue that Sonny Perdue wasn't much of a political outsider, but that's the way he campaigned. You have a political outsider campaigning against a Democratic insider, to Eric's point of view. You know, the outsider won, right? And that was the difference. It still matters to people in that regard. So I'm looking at 2018 in the poll numbers, especially Matt Towery, 2018, Matt Towery, 2026. Eric Lynn says no. We'll see. We'll see if Eric's right. I mean, you know, if you want to apply it to national politics, what about 16 and 20? The polls way off in both the presidential races in those years. So it just goes to show, you know, you can look at the polls to kind of game it as you go along. But really, at the end of the day and on Election Day, they don't mean very much. It's just our civic duty to get out and vote. And that's exactly what a lot of people are going to be doing today. Doug Evans with the Rick Jackson campaign. This afternoon.