The GOP gubernatorial nonprofit promoted the very DEI he said he would eliminate

Rick Jackson, a Republican billionaire running for governor of Georgia on a promise to ban DEI in state government and public education, founded a nonprofit that promoted a 2021 workplace campaign urging Georgia CEOs to invest in DEI, measure progress, examine the racial wage gap, implement racially sensitive hiring practices and lead workplaces with “race in mind.”

Jackson, the founder of Jackson Healthcare and a network of small companies, including Jackson Physician Search and Jackson Therapy Partners, said he would be President Donald Trump’s “favorite governor,” modeled his campaign launch after the president and said he has never met a Trump policy he didn’t like. Trump, meanwhile, has made eliminating 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 also took aggressive action against DEI in the courts.

In addition to his for-profit companies, Jackson is the founder and CEO of goBeyondProfit, a Georgia nonprofit organization. Philanthropic Enterprise describes itself as “a cost-effective resource for Georgia business leaders interested in turning their philanthropic efforts into a business strategy,” and added 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 series of videos for CEOs to learn the “dos and don’ts” of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). “Telly’s award-winning video series” aimed at helping companies implement DEI efforts remains active on the nonprofit’s website.

One of the videos promoted the critical thinker of race Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How To Be An Anti-Racist,” noted by critics as the leading text of modern racial ideology that rejects colorism and defends discrimination when used to achieve equality. The program also included experts who said “doing nothing” at the DEI was “appropriate” and framed the issues of race in the workplace through slavery and Jim Crow.

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Among those experts was former Jackson Healthcare DEI chief Matthew Harrison, who, in DEI program videos, revealed that the share of “people of color” hired in new roles at Jackson Healthcare increased from 9% to 25% after the company implemented the diversity practices discussed in the program’s training videos.

Jackson’s corporate circle has a history of pro-DEI messaging and efforts that could complicate one of his central campaign premises: that he is the best-positioned candidate to defund DEI and restore Georgia-based policies. Jackson’s campaign platform says he will ban DEI programs in state government, public universities and classrooms, while his campaign messaging has vowed to “prevent DEI’s madness” and “condemn reverse racism.”

“We need to shut down all of the DEI insanity and criminalize retrograde racism,” 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” program, whether he endorsed DEI’s materials at the time and how he squared past race-focused workplace efforts with his current anti-DEI platform.

“Rick hires like the Georgia Bulldogs: only the best players get on the field, and he will not be discriminated against as governor,” a Jackson campaign spokeswoman said in response to questions from Fox News Digital.

The campaign added that “many of Georgia’s most successful and conservative business leaders” have become “ambassadors or program members” for goBeyondProfit, citing the involvement of Chick-fil-A 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 campaign that included a “Telly Award-winning video series” aimed at helping CEOs guide “DEI” and DEI. changes” in their workplaces.

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The goBeyondProfit video series featured DEI experts, including Harrison, the former CEO of Jackson Healthcare, encouraging CEOs and their companies to invest in DEI, measure progress, examine the racial wage gap and use racially sensitive hiring practices to increase workplace diversity.

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

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

“Personally here at Jackson Healthcare, I took over the top talent acquisition here in June of 2019 and I put that in place, and within a year, we saw an increase in our number of people of color that we hired in new roles. It went from 9% to 25% and that’s all we changed,” Harrison said.

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A different speaker in the DEI video series discusses the importance of connecting DEI metrics to employee evaluations, he encourages “taking those quick steps and fighting discrimination” as discussed in Kendi’s book that CEOs are encouraged to read, he urges “employers to review the equity of part-time pay for their employees,” and he urges managers to put money in your mouth in DEI where you need “DEI”. efforts.

The same speaker framed workplace race issues with slavery and Jim Crow, said slavery was “America’s first racially based economic system” and said “relics of slavery” still live “even in the American workplace.”

“Ironically, the American workplace is the one place where we should have the most conversations, but ironically, it’s the one place where we’re least likely to,” Harrison added in one of the videos. Meanwhile, at one point in one of the videos, Harrison explained how Jackson Healthcare had started a “racing chain” using an outside vendor to prevent it from being viewed as “this HR authority” by employees.

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A related goBeyondProfit blog post commissioned by Harrison and another DEI expert in a video series encouraged managers to take an Organizational Implicit Test to measure bias and create a “Bias Breaker” list that catalogs their known biases, including “sex, gender, race or skin color, weight, age, and the list goes on.”

This revelation of the past DEI of Jackson’s companies is not the first time that this issue has attacked his campaign. Fox News Digital reported in March that Harrison, who wrote his thesis on “Colorism,” said in a 2020 podcast interview that Jackson Healthcare and its leaders “recognize and recognize the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in our workforce.” He even praised Jackson for promoting a “learning experience about race during the interview. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital also reported last month that one of Jackson’s companies focused on health care workers produced several items mocking the 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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DEI’s unearthed efforts come as the Georgia GOP’s brutal gubernatorial primary draws to a close, with elections scheduled for next Tuesday, followed by the general election in November.

At times, the primary race focused on which candidate would be President Donald Trump’s fiercest ally. Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has Trump’s official endorsement, and Trump recently warned voters during a tele-rally that while others say he supports us, “I recommend a man named Burt Jones.” Jones’ campaign has called Jackson a “Never-Trumper” and a “fraud,” often citing the fact that he has funded Trump’s political opponents, such as Jeb Bush, in the past.

Jackson, meanwhile, tried to run as a Trump-like outsider, promising to be “Trump’s favorite governor,” donating $1 million to MAGA Inc. of Trump during his campaign launch, modeling his inauguration campaign after Trump’s famously cash-strapped Trump, and telling local media that he couldn’t name a single White House policy from the Trump administration that he didn’t like.

Jackson criticized Jones as part of the political establishment, while comparing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, one of his main opponents, to the biblical character “Judas” for being unfaithful to Trump as he tried to run for the 2020 election.