Rick Jackson, a Republican billionaire running for Georgia governor on a pledge to ban DEI in state government and public education, founded a nonprofit that promoted a 2021 workplace initiative urging Georgia CEOs to invest in DEI, measure progress, examine racial pay gaps, use race-conscious hiring practices and lead workplaces «with race in mind.»

Jackson, the billionaire healthcare founder of Jackson Healthcare and its network of smaller companies, including Jackson Physician Search and Jackson Therapy Partners, has said he would be President Donald Trump’s «favorite governor,» modeled his campaign launch after the president’s and said he has never met a Trump policy he doesn’t like. Trump, meanwhile, has made ending DEI in the United States a key part of his second term, issuing an executive order shortly after he was inaugurated to remove it from public services, universities and beyond. His administration has also taken an aggressive stance against DEI in the courts.

In addition to his for-profit companies, Jackson is the founder and CEO of goBeyondProfit, a Georgia nonprofit. The philanthropic venture describes itself as a «no-cost resource for Georgia business leaders interested in evolving their corporate generosity efforts into a business strategy,» and adds that Jackson has «long shared the belief that businesses can and should be a force for good in the world.» In 2021, goBeyondProfit launched a DEI initiative focused on keeping «race in mind» in the workplace, which included a video series for CEOs to learn the «do’s and don’ts» of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The «Telly Award-Winning video series» aimed at helping companies implement DEI initiatives remains active on the nonprofit’s website.

One of the videos promoted critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi’s book «How To Be An Anti-Racist,» which has been characterized by critics as a leading text of modern race-conscious ideology that rejects colorblindness and defends discrimination when used to achieve equity. The initiative also featured experts who argued «doing nothing» on DEI was «cringe worthy» and framed workplace race issues through slavery and Jim Crow.

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Among those experts was then-Jackson Healthcare DEI executive Matthew Harrison, who, in the DEI initiative’s videos, touted how the share of «people of color» hired into new roles at Jackson Healthcare rose from 9% to 25% after the company implemented the diversity measures discussed in the initiative’s instructional videos.

Jackson’s business orbit has a history of DEI-friendly messaging and efforts that could complicate one of his central campaign pitches: that he is the candidate best positioned to root out DEI and restore merit-based policies in Georgia. Jackson’s campaign platform says he would prohibit DEI programs in state government, public universities and classrooms, while his campaign messaging has vowed to «ban DEI insanity» and «criminalize reverse discrimination.»

«We need to ban every bit of idiotic DEI insanity and criminalize reverse discrimination,» he recently posted on social media.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jackson’s campaign, Jackson Healthcare and goBeyondProfit for comment, including questions about whether Jackson was aware of the «Race in Mind» initiative, whether he approved of the DEI materials at the time and how he squared the nonprofit’s past race-focused workplace efforts with his current anti-DEI campaign platform.

«Rick hires like the Georgia Bulldogs: only the best players hit the field, and he will prohibit reverse discrimination as governor,» a Jackson campaign spokesperson said in response to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

The campaign added that «many of Georgia’s most successful and conservative business leaders» have been «program ambassadors or members» at goBeyondProfit, citing Chick-fil-A’s involvement and the involvement of Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus until his death.

In 2021, at the height of the social justice movement following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others, Jackson’s goBeyondProfit launched «Leading a Thriving Workplace with Race in Mind,» a DEI initiative that included a «Telly Award-Winning video series» aimed at helping CEOs navigate the «do’s and don’ts» of DEI and make «impactful changes» in their workplaces.

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The goBeyondProfit video series featured DEI experts, including Harrison, a former Jackson Healthcare executive, urging CEOs and their companies to invest in DEI, measure progress, examine racial pay gaps and use race-conscious hiring practices to increase workplace diversity.

Hundreds of demonstrators protest outside a rally held by President Donald Trump at Macomb County Community College in Warren, Mich., on April 29, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn/Getty Images)

In one video, Harrison described implementing a «Rooney Rule» hiring policy at Jackson Healthcare after he took over talent acquisition in 2019, saying the company increased the share of «people of color» hired into new roles from 9% to 25% within a year.

«Personally here at Jackson Healthcare, I took over leading talent acquisition here in June of 2019 and put that in place, and within a year, we saw our increase in the number of people of color that we hired into new roles. It went from 9% to 25% and that’s the only thing we changed,» Harrison says.

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A separate speaker from the DEI video series discusses the importance of tying DEI metrics to employee evaluations, encourages «taking those proactive steps and being anti-racist» as discussed in Kendi’s book that CEOs were encouraged to read, implored «employers do periodic pay equity reviews for their employees,» and urged executives to financially invest in DEI work, saying companies needed to «put your money where your mouth is» on DEI efforts. 

That same speaker framed workplace race issues through slavery and Jim Crow, saying slavery was «America’s first race-based economic system» and arguing that the «vestiges of slavery» still live on «even in the American workplace.»

«Oddly, the American workplace is the one place where we should be having more of these conversations, but ironically, it’s the one place where we’re least likely to do,» Harrison adds in one of the videos. Meanwhile, at another point in one of the videos, Harrison described how Jackson Healthcare started a «race series» using an outside vendor in order to prevent it from being viewed as «this HR mandate» by employees.

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A related goBeyondProfit blog post authored by Harrison and the other DEI expert from the video series encouraged executives to take an Implicit Association Test to measure subconscious biases and create a «Bias Breaker» list cataloguing their known biases, including those involving «gender, sexual orientation, race or skin color, weight, age, and the list goes on.»

This revelation about the DEI past of Jackson’s companies is not the first time the issue has come to haunt his campaign. Fox News Digital reported in March that Harrison, who wrote his thesis on «Colorism,» said during a 2020 podcast interview that Jackson Healthcare and its leaders «get and see the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in our workforce.» He even credited Jackson for inspiring «a learning experience about race during the interview. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital also reported last month that one of Jackson’s companies focused on healthcare staffing produced numerous materials ridiculing Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Republican candidate for Georgia governor Rick Jackson is pictured next to President Donald Trump. (Getty Images/Rick Jackson)

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The unearthed DEI efforts come as a brutal Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary nears its conclusion, with the election slated for next Tuesday, followed by the general election in November.

At times, the primary race has centered on which candidate can claim the mantle of President Donald Trump’s fiercest ally. Georgia Lt. Gov Burt Jones has Trump’s formal endorsement, and Trump recently warned voters during a tele-rally that while others were claiming his support, «I endorse a man named Burt Jones.» Jones’ campaign has branded Jackson a «Never-Trumper» and a «fraud,» often citing the fact he funded many of Trump’s political opponents, like Jeb Bush, in the past.

Jackson, meanwhile, has tried to run as a Trump-style outsider, pledging to be «Trump’s favorite governor,» donating $1 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. as he launched his campaign, modeling his campaign launch after Trump with a celebratory elevator descent, and telling local media he can’t name a single White House policy from the Trump administration he doesn’t like.

Jackson has blasted Jones as part of the political establishment, while likening Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another one of his main primary opponents, to the Biblical character «Judas» for being disloyal to Trump during his efforts to contest the 2020 election.

Preocupaciones

El presidente Donald Trump y el presidente Xi Jinping de China llegan a un banquete de Estado en el Gran Salón del Pueblo en Pekín durante su cumbre de dos días, el jueves 14 de mayo de 2026. Tras meses de evitar la confrontación, la administración Trump ha tomado medidas recientes para denunciar a China en relación con Irán, la inteligencia artificial y el espionaje. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

Sanciones

Democrat Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow accrued nearly a year’s worth of unpaid utility charges on her million-dollar home while campaigning on affordability.

Until Friday, McMorrow and her husband, former Gawker executive Ray Wert, had not paid water or sewer charges on their home in Royal Oak, Mich., since June 2025, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital. The property had accrued $3,000.37 in unpaid bills and late fees. 

The debt was paid shortly after Fox News Digital reached out for comment. 

«The bills in question have been paid,» the spokesperson said. «We respect the commitment to covering anything other than the fact that every single American’s bills – from gas to groceries to electricity – are going way up because of Donald Trump and his enablers like Mike Rogers.»

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McMorrow, a state legislator vying for the Democratic nomination in one of the country’s top Senate races, has repeatedly fallen behind on payments in recent years. 

Records show the couple has been fined 10 times totaling more than $400 in late fees for nonpayment since late 2021, when they purchased a $1.28 million home in the Detroit suburb. A report in the Detroit Metro Times that year described the property — with a pool and outside courtyard — as a home «to marvel at.»

McMorrow and Wert also let overdue water bills pile up on the home in the latter half of 2024, when they went five months without making a payment. When the couple finally paid $917 in January 2025, records showed an unpaid balance of $45 in late fees.

Royal Oak Township sends water bills quarterly and assesses a 5% late fee on unpaid balances. If McMorrow had failed to pay the balance by June 1, another 5% penalty would have been added, according to a billing notice.

Under Royal Oak policy, unpaid water and sewer bills can eventually be added to the couple’s property tax bill and prolonged nonpayment can result in water shutoff.

The delinquent payments come as recent disclosures show McMorrow and her husband may be millionaires. 

She estimated her net worth between $588,041 and $1.87 million last year, Michigan Advance reported. Up to $1.15 million was reported under her name or as a joint asset with her husband, according to a financial disclosure filed last year.

McMorrow earned $101,554 from her state senator salary, according to the filing. She also reported just over $106,000 in royalties. 

Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow speaks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago on August 19, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

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While McMorrow was falling behind on payments, she championed «affordability» legislation that would end water shutoffs for not paying city bills. 

McMorrow cosponsored a measure last year that would cap water bills for qualifying low-income residents and offer debt forgiveness for overdue balances. The program would be funded through a regular surcharge on most Michigan water customers.

She has also backed the Human Right to Water Act, which would recognize access to affordable drinking water as a right and direct the state government to develop «affordability criteria.»

In a March 2021 Facebook post, she advocated for legislation that would «end water shutoffs.»

«Let’s be clear, access to water is a human right, even when there’s not a pandemic,» she wrote.

McMorrow’s delinquent water bills come as she is running in a combative three-way Democratic primary to succeed Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who is retiring. 

The swing seat is a must-win race for Democrats hoping to retake Senate control, but Republicans also view the contest as a top flip opportunity. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., cleared the field last year with President Donald Trump’s backing while the Democratic candidates continue to duke it out ahead of the August primary.

McMorrow is campaigning on a progressive platform that includes calling on the wealthy to pay their «fair share» in taxes. Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders-backed Abdul El-Sayed is running to her left, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., a candidate with support from the party’s establishment swing, has espoused more centrist views.

Controversial streamer Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic primary candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, take a selfie with young fans after a campaign event at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on April 7, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

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Progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have endorsed McMorrow’s campaign.

She recently faced scrutiny for deleting thousands of old social media posts prior to her Senate campaign launch that denigrated «Middle America» and associated Trump and his base with Nazi Germany. CNN first reported on the trove of since-deleted posts. 

The Senate hopeful largely defended her posts in an interview with the network, arguing she «tweeted normal things like a normal person.»