MAGA candidate pays out to cheated workers despite pro-jobs campaign: report

A billionaire running for Georgia governor with President Donald Trump's endorsement and a job-creating platform saw his companies pay millions to settle worker complaints.

According to a Monday report by The Daily Beast, Rick Jackson has built his campaign around his business track record, but court records show at least two of his healthcare firms agreed to class-action settlements. Workers accused his firms of failing to pay wages properly.

One subsidiary, Jackson Nurse Professionals, settled a 2017 class action in 2022 for close to $2 million to resolve claims from roughly 300 nursing staff who said the travel staffing company shorted them on overtime, bonuses, and wages owed when they left. A separate company, Avante Healthcare Professionals, agreed to a $3 million settlement covering more than 5,000 current and former international workers, according to The Daily Beast.

CNN first reported the second settlement last month and noted the foreign-born nurses accused the firm of exploiting immigrants it had recruited to the United States.

None of the settlements found that Jackson personally broke labor laws, The Daily Beast noted. However, the payouts sit awkwardly against a campaign that leans heavily on his reputation as a self-made healthcare titan, The Daily Beast added.

Jackson has vowed to "create more jobs than have ever been created in the history of Georgia," and pledged to bring business solutions to the state, according to The Daily Beast. He also described himself as a conservative outsider who built a $3 billion company without outside financing.

Trump has repeatedly boosted Jackson and credited his business acumen and MAGA views after Jackson won the GOP primary runoff in June, The Daily Beast reported.

Jackson faces a tight race against Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor. An August InsiderAdvantage poll showed the two effectively deadlocked, with Jackson at 46.3 percent and Bottoms at 46.2 percent among likely voters, per The Daily Beast.

Jackson also faced scrutiny in June, when a recording captured him appearing to agree that women should have to prove they were raped to qualify for an abortion. His campaign said the comments were distorted, The Daily Beast noted.