On August 13, 2026, at a campaign rally in Columbus, a man in the crowd told Georgia's Republican nominee for governor that he was worried Democrats would cheat in November. Then he asked for soldiers.

"Trump's got federal troops," the supporter said. "Can you call up and get some federal troops from Trump?"

Rick Jackson did not tell him that no one is cheating. He did not tell him that troops do not belong at a polling place. He gave him a better offer.

"We'll get National Guard — Governor Kemp is going to watch it for us," Jackson said.

"Is that right?" the man asked.

"Yes," Jackson said. "He's going to get the National Guard."

The exchange was captured on audio obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and it put the sitting governor's office in the position of being asked whether any of it was true.

Kemp's office indicated there is no such plan

Governor Brian Kemp's spokesman was asked about the possibility of the state deploying the National Guard in the 2026 election. He did not confirm any such plan. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that he indicated there are no plans for a deployment.

"We've proven for multiple cycles now that it's easy to vote and hard to cheat in Georgia elections," the spokesman said in a statement. "The same will be true this cycle. We are approaching this upcoming election the exact same way we have in the past."

That is a sitting Republican governor's office declining, in public, to back up what the Republican nominee to replace him told his supporters.

Jackson's campaign now says he "never suggested deploying troops at polling places," and points to Georgia's record of making it "easier to vote and harder to cheat." Read the transcript again. The question he was answering was a request for federal troops to stop cheating at the election. His answer was that the National Guard was coming. If that is not suggesting troops at the election, it is hard to say what he thought the man was asking for.

The Center Square says it was unsuccessful in getting comment from Jackson before publishing.

The thing the man actually asked for is a federal crime

The supporter's specific request — call Trump and get federal troops — runs into a statute that has been on the books since the 1800s. 18 U.S.C. § 592 makes it a crime for anyone in the civil or military service of the United States to order, bring, or keep "any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held." The only carve-out is if armed force is genuinely needed to fight off an armed attack on the country.

The penalty is a fine, up to five years in prison, or both — plus being disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.

Georgia has its own rule for the ground itself. Under O.C.G.A. § 21-2-413, nobody may carry a firearm within 150 feet of a polling place except peace officers regularly employed by a government and certified security guards. Guardsmen are neither.

So the version the supporter wanted is illegal, and the version Jackson offered him would run into a state law written specifically to keep armed men away from voters.

This is not the first time this year a Republican running for governor has promised armed federal personnel at the polls. Eleven days ago in Maine, Bobby Charles told a room of young Republicans he would call Trump's border czar and ask for ICE agents and marshals at Maine's voting booths — the same statute, the same problem.

The premise nobody in the room questioned

Georgia has been the country's stress test for this argument since 2020, when Trump lost the state and then called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to say, on a recording, "I just want to find 11,780 votes."

That fight is not over. The FBI raided the Fulton County Elections Office in January. The Justice Department has since subpoenaed the county for the personal information of the people who worked the 2020 election. Those are the same poll workers — ordinary Georgians who counted ballots — that Trump's allies spent years accusing of fraud.

None of it has produced a case that Georgia's elections are being stolen. Raffensperger, a Republican, has now stood up a bipartisan election integrity task force whose stated job is to "push back" on election misinformation. Its members include two former Republican officeholders, two former Democratic ones, the head of the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, and county election directors.

Rick Jackson is running to be governor of that state. When a supporter handed him the fraud premise and asked for troops, he could have done what Kemp's office did and say Georgia's elections are secure. Instead he confirmed the man's fear and told him help was coming.

His Democratic opponent, Keisha Lance Bottoms, put it this way: "Rick Jackson is once again telling Georgians how he will be Trump's favorite governor — this time by spreading election lies and threatening our elections."

The "favorite governor" line is not Bottoms's. It is Jackson's. Standing on a stage beside Trump after the endorsement, pointing at him, Jackson said he was "going to be this man's favorite governor" — an endorsement Trump publicly said came after Jackson gave him "a couple of" million dollars.

What soldiers at the polls actually do

There is no version of this where armed troops at a polling place make an election more accurate. Ballots are counted by machines and by people, and a soldier standing in the parking lot does not check anyone's math.

What soldiers do is change who decides to walk in. That is the entire reason the 1800s statute exists, and it is why Georgia drew a 150-foot line around the door.

It is also part of a broader push. Trump's Homeland Security Secretary has threatened election officials with prison and fines if their states won't hand over voter data for federal "scrubbing" — over a fraud problem the government has never been able to document at any meaningful scale.

The bottom line

Asked at an August 13 rally in Columbus to get federal troops from Trump to stop Democrats from cheating, Rick Jackson told his supporter that Governor Brian Kemp would "get the National Guard" for Georgia's election. Kemp's office indicated there are no such plans and said the state is running this election exactly as it has run the last several. Federal law makes bringing troops to a polling place a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, and Georgia law bars anyone but police and certified guards from carrying a gun within 150 feet of one. Jackson's campaign now says he never suggested troops at polling places — an answer that does not survive listening to the question he was asked.

Sources

Jackson suggests Kemp will use National Guard to monitor election — Greg Bluestein, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, updated August 25, 2026. The AJC obtained the rally audio.

Rick Jackson wants the National Guard to monitor Georgia's election. Will Brian Kemp do it? — Kim Jarrett, The Center Square / The Georgia Sun, August 30, 2026. Photo: Rick Jackson at a Georgia Association of Manufacturers candidate forum in Atlanta, April 21, 2026 (Matthew Pearson/WABE via AP).