Billionaire Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson has drawn scrutiny over his healthcare business empire, which includes subsidiaries involved in recruiting foreign nurses for U.S. hospitals.
Jackson, 71, faces a competitive GOP primary against Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Attorney General Chris Carr, with the primary scheduled for May 19.
Jackson founded Jackson Healthcare in 2000, describing it as “the parent company to many of the healthcare industry’s leading brands.”
In January 2018, the company acquired Florida-based Avant Healthcare Professionals, a staffing firm that places international clinical workers in hospitals and long-term care facilities across the U.S.
Avant assists recruits with licensure, immigration, cultural training, and job placement, frequently using H-1B and EB-3 visas for temporary or permanent employment, according to the Florida Trend.
In 2023, Avant faced a lawsuit filed by two nurses—Latoya Lewis of Jamaica and Lucinda Byron of St. Thomas and the Grenadines—alleging wage suppression, threats of deportation, and misleading contracts.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, claimed the women earned as little as $10 per hour during a mandatory month-long training period before placement in Georgia and South Dakota.
The lawsuit described the company’s practices as “essentially indentured servitude,” arguing that extended placements financially benefited Avant while disadvantaging employees.
Avant reached a settlement in November covering more than 5,200 nurses recruited since 2013, providing roughly $2 million in compensation and $1 million in attorneys’ fees.
The company maintained that EB-3 visa holders can change employers upon arrival and denied wrongdoing.
Jackson’s healthcare experience extends beyond international staffing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson Healthcare supplied doctors, nurses, and support personnel to hospitals under state contracts, including nearly $710 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds.
According to Healthbeat, the company also held contracts with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and previously provided staffing to the Department of Human Services for foster care and psychiatric facilities, receiving $7.4 million for specialized services in 2022 and 2023.
Jackson’s campaign emphasizes these efforts as evidence of his capacity to respond to crises and expand healthcare access.
“When COVID hit Georgia, Gov. Kemp asked Jackson for more doctors and nurses. And Jackson delivered again, refusing to send help to New York until Georgia got the emergency care it needed,” a campaign statement said, according to The Daily Caller.
Legal and ethics experts caution that Jackson may need to separate from his business interests if elected to avoid conflicts.
Georgia law generally prohibits elected officials from holding state contracts, though exceptions exist for preexisting agreements, emergencies, and specialized services.
Attorneys recommend divestment or placement of assets in a blind trust to prevent the appearance of benefiting from state contracts while in office.
Jackson has been a longtime GOP donor, including contributions to some of his opponents, such as Secretary of State Raffensperger and Attorney General Carr, Georgia Public Radio noted.
With polls showing Jackson gaining ground on front-runner Burt Jones, his business dealings, foreign nurse recruitment, and state contracts could become central issues in the primary.
The candidate’s blend of healthcare leadership, international staffing experience, and campaign promises to prioritize law enforcement and immigration policy highlights a complex intersection of business and politics, likely shaping voter perceptions in the upcoming election.
