Rick Jackson hosts election night watch party at Perimeter

Let's move forward and talk about another key race we're following. Who will be the next governor? We know that Republican businessman Rick Jackson is up against Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and also former Atlanta mayor there. And experts say this race could go either way. Our Doug Evans joins us live with more. Doug, thanks so much for joining us from the Westin Atlanta perimeter. I'm going to go through the last window. That's right. We're at the Westin Hotel in Sandy Springs, right in the shadow of the King and Queen building off to my right, just outside the doors where I'm standing. I'm actually standing in a hallway, Jasmine. We're not quite to the ballroom yet. That will open up later this afternoon as they let the press and the supporters in. The Westin Hotel is where Rick Jackson's supporters and staff will be watching the election night. Numbers come in and where you'll have a front row seat as well as Fox 5 brings you that throughout the evening. As for the candidate himself, Rick Jackson voted in Forsyth County in person today. He has utilized absentee balloting before, took that opportunity to vote in person today with his wife, Melody, and took the opportunity as well to kind of of shore-up support for election integrity in Georgia, saying it was a very meaningful experience. He has been a staunch supporter of Georgia election laws, echoing the words of Brian Kemp, hard to cheat, right, has been the mantra there for the Republican Party and election laws and the integrity of elections and voting system here in Georgia since 2020. Easy to vote. Hard to cheat. That's the complete line. For Rick Jackson, his main issues have been the economy, talking about freezing property taxes, talking also about capping state income tax and cutting it in half. He fashions himself an outsider. He's a businessman, billionaire. Businessman, it worked well for him in the primary against Burt Jones, came out of nowhere. The last man in, the last man standing in the Georgia primary, beating Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones in a runoff election after that primary. He draws on a personal experience, and he talks about it quite frequently, of having been in five foster homes, growing up very poor, growing up in Techwood homes. A lot of people nowadays don't even know what Techwood homes is, that was a housing complex in Atlanta in the very shadows of downtown Atlanta in which he grew up. Very poor, has made something of himself, a pull up your bootstraps kind of guy and has been a successful businessman. In fact, funded. Much of his campaign out of his own pocket, millions and millions of dollars. As I said, we're in the West. Are you ready to pan now? All right. Michael Moore behind the camera. Here we are in the hallway. You'll recognize some of these guys. That's our Larry Sproul over there looking dapper in his blue suit, looking much like Kevin Stewart over here, Aiden, our photographer. They'll be bringing you reports as well. From this very hotel on other candidates. We're all kind of thrown together here in this hallway. I could not have better company in this hallway right now. Jasmine, back to you. Thrown together for sure, Doug. Thanks so much for joining us to talk about this race. Before you go, I do want to ask you one question. Have you been able to speak with any voters there? How are they feeling today on this very big day? Gosh, we are still so early, Jasmine. Here we are at 2:14 in the afternoon. It is literally just Fox 5 and an 11 Alive reporter in this hallway right now. As we look down the hallway, we can see some people, not really sure who they are. Um, maybe some campaign workers looking on, uh, see some folding, some t-shirts, some other things going on. They look more, maybe Jackson campaign look like some young people there. Good to see young people out here. Right. Understand Doug. Okay, Doug, thanks so much for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you throughout the afternoon.