Getting to Know Georgia Gubernatorial Candidate Derrick Jackson

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What happens when a career of service meets an uncompromising vision for economic justice? State Representative Derrick Jackson opens up about his journey from Navy Lieutenant Commander to gubernatorial candidate with a laser focus on family and opportunity for all Georgians.

Growing up as his mother's only son in a single-parent household, Jackson learned the meaning of service early – from shoveling a neighbor's driveway at age seven to commanding thousands in the U.S. Navy. His 42-year leadership journey spans military service, corporate executive experience, and a decade fighting for Georgians at the state legislature.

The conversation takes us beyond policy talking points to reveal the man behind the bow tie. Jackson shares his personal journey through devastating loss after his first wife's death from breast cancer and finding love again, creating a blended family of seven children. This intimate experience shapes his understanding of what Georgia families need to not just survive, but thrive.

At the heart of Jackson's campaign is a bold economic vision addressing Georgia's shockingly low $5.15 minimum wage – a rate he calls unconscionable in a prosperous state. Drawing on his background in economics, he articulates how raising wages and creating opportunities for the 2.3 million Georgians living in poverty would strengthen the entire economy. "When everyone can participate in the marketplace," he explains, "we all benefit."

Jackson doesn't shy away from challenging topics, offering a nuanced perspective on abortion rights that balances personal values with public responsibility. His commitment to expanding access and removing barriers for small Black farmers, veterans, educators, and everyday Georgians reveals a candidate who understands government should clear paths rather than create obstacles.

Ready to learn more about Derrick Jackson's vision for Georgia? Visit www.VoteDerrickJackson.org and follow him on social media where you'll recognize him as "the guy with the bow tie" who's fighting for family, opportunity, and a Georgia where everyone can thrive.

IG: @derrickjackson4gagov

www.votederrickjackson.org

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a challenge for us.
So, it's not just Derek Jacksonwant to become governor.
He's going to focus on familyeach and every day.
That sounds great.
He wants to take the minimumwage from $5.15 to $15, $20 and
$27.
Abolished state tax for nursesand military and educators and

(00:20):
those over the age of 65.
He wants to do all these greatthings that's going to help
mitigate this affordabilityconundrum.
All those things sounds great,but they also need to know that
Derrick Jackson is looking downthe road at 2030 and 2032.
Of leadership, to be able tostand in front of the United

(00:44):
States and say that the peopleof Georgia not only is going to
vote, but we're going to makesure that the rights and the
guarantee of the American dream,as per the constitution, will
live on.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
What's going on folks ?
Man, we've got a good one foryou today.
I had the honor of sitting downwith Georgia State
Representative Derek Jackson,who is currently running for
governor.
Derek, enlisted in the Navyright out of high school, spent
20 years in the military, 10more years as an executive in
the corporate world and for thelast 10 has been a legislator

(01:20):
for our state.
Now he's running to make adifference.
Has been a legislator for ourstate, now he's running to make
a difference.
But see, everyone says that.
So what I wanted out of thisparticular interview is I wanted
to stay away from all the majortalking points, even though
inevitably they're going to comeup.
But I wanted to find out whothe man is.
I wanted to speak to the manthe husband, the father, the

(01:43):
brother, and we are soappreciative that State
Representative Jackson did nothold back.
He talks about family.
He talks about his humblebeginnings all the way through
the top and why he is pursuing alife of service, even at this
point.
You don't want to miss any partof this interview.
Make sure you stay all the waythrough the end and if you're
not following us already, hitthose three dots, click the

(02:06):
follow button and send this toone of your friends.
I guarantee you they willappreciate it.
Welcome to Manhood Matters.
Let's get to it so.
State representative derekjackson, gubernatorial candidate

(02:47):
for the state of Georgia.
Welcome, brother.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Welcome.
Thank you, brother.
Thank you for having me toshare my thoughts and my
feelings, because not oftenelected officials do this yeah,
very rarely and I think it'sabsolutely critical in this day
and age for citizens to know whothey should vote for but, more

(03:10):
importantly, who they are.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I want to go down that rabbit hole.
I have, on this podcast, neverinterviewed a politician before
we talk about y'all Right, butI've not talked to one directly
and I think what better way toshow the humanity in that person
and bring that person to theforefront.
So I got something for you.
I want to start with this.
You are on the 30th floor ofthe West End Hotel in downtown

(03:36):
Atlanta.
You walk into an elevator andin that elevator we have a white
female nurse, a black malefarmer and you have a white man
who is a CEO, co-founder of asmall business.
You have about 30 secondsbefore you guys hit the lobby to
tell them who you are and whyyou're running.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Give me the opportunity to get to know me.
I am a husband, I am a fatherone with seven children, four
daughters and three sons.
I am a father one with sevenchildren, four daughters and
three sons.
I am a retired lieutenantcommander, united States Navy.
I am also my mother's only soncame and raised in a single
family household, and so whenyou understand who I am as a

(04:19):
person, you realize why myplatform is all about family
White, black, old, young, rich,poor, urban, suburban.
So in this 30 seconds to youCEO, you nurse and you black
farmer, give me the opportunityto get to know me and I get to
know you Because when I becomeyour governor, I'm going to wake

(04:42):
up each and every day with yourfamily on my mind, because in
this business that I'm in, it'sabout relationships.
So there's nothing I can tellyou in 30, 40, 50 seconds other
than I'm the right person forthe job and I'm qualified for
the job and we're going to getinto all of that.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
So let's talk about your early life.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Where did you grow up ?
The beautiful thing about myupbringing my mother was born
and raised right here inWaynesboro, georgia.
In fact, my family roots inGeorgia go back to the early
1800s when my great greatgrandfather was bought and sold
in Charleston, south Carolina.
They moved him to Georgia.
He was sold to a plantationhere.

(05:24):
My mother fast forward, in 1959, 1960, depending on who you
speak to left Georgia and wentup to New York and so we spread
out across New York Brooklyn,bronx, far Rockaway, queens,
binghamton and Syracuse.
The reason why?
Because in the late 50s, early60s, new York had this huge job

(05:45):
boom, in particular my mother.
She had a desire to become anurse and so when they learned
about this job boom in New York,specifically for nurses,
carpenters and things of thatnature, is the reason why my
mother and a few of her siblingsended up in New York.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Gotcha, you often speak of service, your actual
career.
You're not calling it a career,you're calling it service.
So who in your family thoughtyou that?
Was it?
Your mother, your aunts?
And how did that shape yourleadership style, your
commitment and your resilience?

Speaker 1 (06:14):
a career.
I call it a body of service.
My mother taught me in a tenderage of seven or eight we had
this significant snowfall.
As you well know, growing up inNew York, you're going to see
mountains of snow, and then,this particular year, she bought

(06:35):
me a shovel as a gift.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
That doesn't sound like a gift.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Listen, I was the only boy, I'm going to buy you a
shovel.
Yeah, and it was a snow shovel.
And so she said, derek, I needyou to go and shovel the
driveway.
Yes, ma'am, not a problem.
And so I went out there,shoveled the driveway and upon
completion, my mother goes.
Now I need you to go and do thesame for our neighbor.
I can't recall the couple'snames, so I'm going to refer to

(07:08):
them as Mrs Smith.
He was an educator, but he'sretired.
Up in age.
He could not shovel hisdriveway, and so my mother
tasked me to go to do the same,and so, upon completion, mrs
Smith gave me a nice cup of hotchocolate.
Man, I'm like this is awesome.
I grew up loving hot chocolate,hot chocolate and oatmeal.
Okay, we'll come back to that.
And so I went back home and mymother asked did you complete

(07:32):
the assignment?
I said yes, ma'am.
She said, derek, that's service.
You gave them a service andthey repaid you with a thank you
.
Right, if you had theopportunity to get to know my
mother when she was alive here,this nurse, for 40 years of her
life, always took it uponherself to teach me and my

(07:53):
siblings I have three sisters,younger sisters about service,
growing up in the church onetime she said now your service
is going to be in the choir.
And so the director of theyouth choir said Marie, my
mother, derek, can't sing, so weneed to find something else for

(08:15):
him to do.
So I ended up on the juniorusher board.
My point is my whole entirelife my mother taught me to find
out where and how I can serveothers.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, you're the oldest of four, that's right.
Three sisters, that's correct.
So what was that like growingup with them as well, having
that stewardship over them?

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, so it was a different kind of responsibility
because I never had a childhoodlife.
So my next sister that's nextto me, I'm three years senior.
Here I am 10 or 11.
The next one is at seven andthe other one is closer to two.
And so my mother taught meresponsibility and

(08:58):
accountability early.
Right, do not answer the doorin case of emergency, right, and
we didn't have 911 back then.
You had to recall all sevennumbers.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, I didn't know that.
I thought I was older than that.
No, okay.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
So you have to learn the seven digits to call the
police or the fire department orthe community hospital, or the
community hospital.
And so, growing up, being thefirstborn and the only son, I
took on the identity like, notjust as a big brother, but

(09:34):
almost like a surrogate father,although a lot of people will
say, man, you didn't have muchof a childhood.
But fast forward, how I turnedout, always looking for
accountability andresponsibility, always looking
for opportunities to serve,always thinking about others
before self.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Those were the tenets that made me a better husband
and a better father today.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, I want to transition and talk about your
Navy career for a little bithere, if I could.
So you went into the Navy inwhat was it?
It 83?

Speaker 1 (10:05):
1983, July 16th.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
All right.
So from Navy recruit toLieutenant Commander over two
decades, what was a definingmoment, whether at sea or during
your command, that taught youleadership in a way that no
other civilian role could have?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
The first time I realized the importance of
leadership was my very firstdeployment.
We had the mission to gooverseas.
President Ronald Reagan was thecommander-in-chief.
God damn you're taking thisback.
And there was someconfrontation between us and

(10:46):
Libya, and Muammar Gaddafi putout this challenge to Ronald
Reagan for us not to cross aparticular latitude and
longitude.
Ronald Reagan being RonaldReagan sent this battleship and
I was on one of those ships, andit was then I realized how you
prepare your sailors and yourofficer for combat.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
What makes the military different than being in
law enforcement?
See, law enforcement.
They may come to a home andthey don't know what's going on
the other side of the door.
But what makes militarysituations different?
We know we're going into combat, that's right.
We know we're about to createhavoc, and so we're trained and

(11:32):
prepared.
We understand the rules ofengagement and all of that.
The execution of that is aroundleadership.
You know, we often ask thequestion is our leaders born or
are leaders made?
And I think it's a combinationof both.
Some leaders are called, but afew are chosen.

(11:52):
A lot of leaders could be good,but a few are great, and there
are some very natural intrinsicvalues that make a leader going
from good to great.
You're just born with thissense of understanding who you
are and whose you are.

(12:13):
Moses did not take a class.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
I was going to say there are great leaders
throughout history that didn'thave access to anything but that
innate X factor that made themwho they are Right and that
sense of service, as you saidbefore.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Right, I mean, take Frederick Douglass.
I'm reading a lot aroundFrederick Douglass right now.
Right, frederick Douglass wasnever elected.
But Frederick Douglass is thereason why we got the 13th
Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15thAmendment.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I'm embarrassed to say this, but I don't know why
that is.
Can you tell us real quick?

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, know why that is?
Can you tell us real quick?
Yeah, so during and afterReconstruction, frederick
Douglass had these conversationswith Abraham Lincoln multiple
times.
Prior to the EmancipationProclamation of 1863, frederick
Douglass would go in andchallenge Abraham Lincoln and
watching how Abraham Lincoln wasabout to allow for Negroes who

(13:03):
were enslaved to become free.
But it did not come without aprice.
And so in the early 1862,abraham Lincoln gave every
plantation owner $300 per slave,because he had to pay slave
owners to say, hey, we got toset these Negroes free, we're

(13:25):
going to let them go.
That's your labor force.
Yeah, so let the government payyou for what you about to lose
for these slaves.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
In other words, pre-reparations, that's right.
Pre-reparations, yeah, that'sthat.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
And so Abraham Lincoln was like okay, I got to
create this environment becauseFrederick Douglass is putting
this pressure on me, RightAsking how can you not
acknowledge someone like me asbeing whole?
We're not three fifths of aperson, Right See, Frederick
Douglass used the Constitutionto say you're doing something
wrong.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Here's the mirror.
Yeah, the phrase all menactually says all men, not some,
right yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:03):
And so so in April 1862, that took place.
And then, about three or fourmonths later, congress, in their
infinite wisdom, saying well,we've got to give them more than
just money, we need to givethem land too.
So again, frederick Douglass,overhearing all this kind of
conversation, said well, wait aminute.
Now you're about to give thesewhite European men 160 acres.
Yeah, for, wait a minute.

(14:23):
Now you're about to give thesewhite European men 160 acres,
yeah, for free.
So Frederick Douglass said waita minute.
Now we are about to approachthe fall.
You got to let my people go.
Right, he's saying the samething, moses said.
Moses said that's right.
So they came to an agreementthat we're going to give the
Negro man 40 acres and a mule,which we never got.
Negro man 40 acres and a mule,which we never got.

(14:44):
Ah, because Congress, rightbefore they went on their recess
before Thanksgiving, they linedthat out.
So the 40 acres and a mule isnot just a myth or a fable.
It was actually part oflegislation.
We're going to free you, butwe're not going to give you no
land, no money and no mule.

(15:06):
Yeah, good luck out there.
And so I'm in this mindset rightnow of Frederick Douglass and
we'll come back to why I'mrunning for governor.
But this all was shaped when Iwas in the military, realizing
that you're going to send usinto war, my first deployment.
Did you give us all theresources that we need to make
sure that we're set up forsuccess?

(15:26):
Again, I'm a very young leaderat this time.
Yeah, I didn't take a class.
In fact, newsflash right hereon your show.
I had zero college, I went intothe Navy at the age of 17.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay.
And so when you think aboutVery little life experience at
that point and we know this nowback then we didn't, but we know
this now.
When we look at 17-year-olds,those are babies.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
That's right?
Yeah, absolutely.
They're going to bring in those17, 18-year-olds, take them to
boot camp and they're going tostress them and stretch them,
but they're also going to takethe opportunity to teach you
what integrity is, what iscommitment, what is discipline,
what is honor, what is courage,what is leadership.

(16:07):
Phenomenal enculturationprocess.
I think I had about 60 men tolead.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's a big deal to have 60 people in a tense
environment going to war.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
So was that the defining moment for you?
So that a defining moment forme, because when you think about
military compared to corporateAmerica, right, if you have 60
direct reports, that means youare a senior VP somewhere.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Correct, so you have to have middle managers under
you.
Absolutely yeah.
Yeah, 60 direct reports ischallenging in any capacity.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
And so now, now this fast forward, this perspective,
by the time you become alieutenant commander, you no
longer have tens, you havethousands.
When you have that kind ofdepartment that you're leading,
giving them the charge of theday, every day you're preparing
them for combat.
Every day you want to make surethat their welfare, of their

(17:05):
family taken care of, right, allof these things as an
operations officer, and so mycontemporaries in corporate
America, if you're leading 2000people, you're the CEO.
My vision is bigger and broader.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Service, everything you've been exposed to.
I know that you had a run atLieutenant Governor.
That was unsuccessful.
Was it 2022?
That's correct, 2022, so it wasunsuccessful.
I guess I want to ask what haveyou learned that would serve
you from this past run, and whyare we running today?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
So again, I'm going to keep giving reference to my
mother, because my mother taughtme now in high school and the
very first time I encounter thethought of quitting was in 10th
grade I was going to quit aparticular sport.
My mother sat me down in thekitchen table and said are you

(17:58):
going to quit?
Because of a coach, becauseit's a new environment, because
somebody going to put you at thesecond string instead of the
first string, are you going toquit?
And so my mother would ask allthese rhetorical questions
without giving me the answer,and so I would sit there.
I'm like I'm not a quitter, amI?

(18:19):
She said no, sir, you're not aquitter.
You not quit, derek, until Godstop you from breathing.
I learned three years ago whenrunning for lieutenant governor
you have to be able todifferentiate yourself.
Number two you have to show upand know what that strategy
looks like.
We have to show up in differentplaces, in different spaces.

(18:41):
Now, podcasts such as yours isanother way of showing up.
Showing up in an email, showingup physically so people can
talk to you, meet and greet you.
Showing up on Instagram, tiktok, blue Sky, all these different
social media platforms.
It's showing up, and so ourgoal this time around is to make

(19:04):
sure we're showing up in allplaces.
Don't discount nothing.
Three years ago we didn't do apodcast.
Three years ago we went thetraditional route, and so God
placed it on my heart this timeand say we have to be
unconventional, because I am anunconventional leader.

(19:26):
I am one that's take the wordtransparent and really hold that
word to be true.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
It's not a trending word for you, it's a core belief
.
That's right.
What's going to take you andplace you in that seat?
What do you think it's going totake?

Speaker 1 (19:40):
So, first off, making sure my message get out by me,
through me.
I mean, it's great to havefamily and friends be my
surrogates, but in the end,folks want to know who you are,
and so right now, there are fourof us in this race, and there's
something that Marie Jacksontaught me that no one should be

(20:02):
able to outpace you.
I was a cross-country runner injunior high and high school.
I was also on the wrestlingteam, I was also on the
gymnastic team, I was also onthe basketball team, so it
doesn't matter what the playingfield is, no one should be able
to outrun you.
Outwork you the young peoplecall your hustle right.

(20:24):
No one should be able to be onthis grind.
Morework you the young peoplecall your hustle right.
No one should be able to be onthis grind more than you, right?
So even my campaign team I'mgoing to lead by example, and so
if I am putting in all thiswork 100% every day, it becomes
infectious.
They too give 100%, and thosewho we get an opportunity to

(20:44):
meet say I want to be part ofthat, I want to give 100% as
well, and that 100% could comein different forms right?
Some financially, some by useof their talents and their goods
, their product.
That's what's going to make usvictorious in the primary.
That's what's going todifferentiate us amongst all the
others.
It's not just the mere fact thatI want to run for governor,

(21:07):
lord knows, I'm not seeking foranother title.
I'm not trying to make history.
Yes, history would be made, butthat's not the purpose and the
goal.
My goal is that we have 11million citizens in Georgia and
of that 11 million citizens, 2.3million are living below the
poverty level.
And the only reason why they'reliving below the poverty level

(21:28):
is because government areleaving them in the shadows,
leaving them behind.
The military taught me you wouldnever leave someone behind
because that's someone's husband, that's someone's son, that's
someone's mother, that'ssomeone's aunt, that's someone's
sister.
Because I wouldn't want no oneto leave me and my family behind
.
What makes me different thaneveryone else is my sincerity

(21:50):
and how genuine I am.
To make sure, yes, I'm going tofocus on all 11 million, but I
need to be laser focused on the2.3 million that's living below
the poverty level.
There's no reason why Georgiathat's living below the poverty
level.
There's no reason why Georgia.
I get frustrated every time Ithink about it.
Georgia's minimum wage is $5.15.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Are you kidding?
I didn't know that we have thisproverb.
You know it's a French proverb,but I'll translate Far from the
eyes, away from the heart, so Idon't see this, so I don't
think about it.
I don't feel that pain.
I think it's hard to survive on$12, $15 an hour.
I think it's super hard tosurvive, considering what
everything costs these days.
It costs to be alive.

(22:32):
So $5 is kind of ridiculous.
What are you trying to get itto?

Speaker 1 (22:36):
I introduce a bill.
Okay, I'm either a sponsor on abill or co-sponsor a bill.
These last 10 years, since I'vebeen under the gold dome as a
legislator, there are only twostates less than the federal
minimum wage, which is alsoabysmal $7.25.
But there are two states that'sless than $7 and 25 cents.

(22:57):
The other state is Wyoming.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
I was going to guess Mississippi.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
I can take the state of Wyoming and put it inside of
Atlanta.
It's the same population.
So why is it a prosperous statelike Georgia?
Why would we be at the bottom?
Where the state is the size ofour capital?
That's insane.
Where the state is the size ofour capital?
That's insane.
So what my bill says, HouseBill 600, says the first year we

(23:23):
go from $5.15 to $15.
The second year we go from $15to $20.
And for the very point that youmade the cost of living today,
you really need more than that,yeah.
So the third year we go to $27.
Because of the Navy, I'm nowcollege educated.

(23:43):
Right, I'm on my fourth degree,which is a PhD in public policy
with the emphasis of economics.
So I love numbers.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's refreshing to hear an actual qualified person
because in the grand scope ofthings, when we're watching the
political climate, you have abunch of people who are not
qualified holding posts theyhave no business holding.
Some of this sounds surreal.
If you made me a leader and Icould just be like well, I'll
give everybody X amount.
Well, are you qualified to saythat?
Do you understand what thatwill do to the state, et cetera,

(24:12):
et cetera.
But it sounds like-.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's very important and I think when I focus on my
why and my why is, as you'vealready articulated, focusing on
a family and understanding whatit costs to survive- yeah.
Let me answer that question.
Go ahead For one person in thestate of Georgia, specifically
in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
It will cost you $99,000 a yearfor one person to survive.

(24:37):
It will cost you $99,000 a yearfor one person to survive.
If you are a family of four,you need $201,000 a year.
Now, what do I mean by?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
surviving.
I was going to challenge that alittle bit because I know
people who are living I want tosay comfortably, because that's
all relative right, but they'remaking $60,000.
A family of two is making under$100,000 and they're living
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
So let's qualify it right, but they're making 60K.
A family of two is making under$100,000 and they're living
Right.
So let's qualify it right.
So to me, as governor, it's notjust simply being able to pay
your bills.
I want you to not only survive,I need you to thrive.
The Bible says a good man willleave a legacy for his children,
children, children to be ableto enjoy.

(25:20):
I'm paraphrasing, but that'sthe essence of it.
Right, and so if you just makea 60,000, and if you lose that
job, you're one or two paychecksaway from foreclosure.
You're one or two paychecksaway from getting your car
repossessed.
You're one or two paychecksaway from getting your car
repossessed.
You're one or two paychecksaway Heaven forbid if a health

(25:42):
scare.
So a person that's making$60,000, yes, they have a life,
but they're not thriving.
It makes it challenging forthat person that's making
$60,000 to take a vacation.
Why do we have a lot of mentalhealth situations?
Because people don't havecoping strategies.
People are built up with stress.
That's why I define my qualityof life strategy around family

(26:05):
as saying $99,000, you canafford a reasonable domicile in
a safe environment.
But a person with $60,000, theydo not have options.
They have to live in anenvironment where, and we got to
clean up crime too, don't getme wrong.
Sure, but their choices arelimited.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
There's also less crime when there's less poverty.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Absolutely.
And so now you take a family offour and the combined income is
about $201,000.
Now they can take vacations.
Most people want a sound,durable vehicle.
Right Now they're thriving.
Their emergency fund is sixmonths worth of monthly payments
.
They have stocks and bonds andmutual funds.

(26:49):
They now create a nest egg fortheir children.
So that's what my goal is right, because a lot of folks who are
running for governor they say,oh yeah, I just want you to have
a quality of life and theydon't really define what that is
.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Because someone that's struggling that's making
$47,000 a year.
They're struggling and underthis current administration it's
going to even get worse.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I imagine that's the case If everyone's thriving
right.
It's kind of like the old adageif you gave everyone a million
dollars, then a dozen eggs wouldcost $100,000.
Because everyone's rich, no onehas to go and work, no one has
to do any of that.
That wouldn't be the case ifpeople had a job that could
actually help them thrive.
That's not my point.
What I'm asking is if therising tides do come up to where

(27:36):
everyone in the state let's saya perfect dream scenario
everyone's there are thedisparities, not what we need
for an economy to fully work,where you don't have to have
people starving on the streetsand not making money, but those
levels.
Isn't that what creates thecapitalist society that we live
in?
That helped it thrive?
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (27:56):
It does, and that's an excellent question to ask,
but in theory that sounds goodon paper.
In actuality, if we made thebasement to become the ceiling
now, we'll have lesshomelessness, we have less crime
.
We'll have a more educatedsociety.
This global market is not basedon the number of folks who are

(28:19):
living in poverty.
No, the market never takes intoconsideration how many poor
people we have in our society.
They take into considerationhow many folks can buy my iPad.
How many folks can buy a home?
How many folks can purchase aMercedes?
When I was at General Electric,we look at how many companies

(28:39):
can purchase our multimilliondollar generators.
We didn't think about the smallbusinesses.
They're never part of ourequation.
What I'm suggesting, if we usemy approach to humanity, let's
take care of the least of these,because now I'm going to bring
in more consumers into themarketplace.

(29:01):
I'm going to create growth.
That makes sense, right, and soif we have more educated
citizens in our population, weare also going to create one of
three things we're either goingto create more employees, more
employers or more entrepreneurs.
So the marketplace is what it'sgoing to be.
My question is wouldn't we wanteveryone to be in the

(29:24):
marketplace?

Speaker 2 (29:26):
It makes sense, obviously, and I guess the
challenge, or some people mightlook at it as some type of a
Robin Hood strategy.
Obviously, yes, the rising tideraises all boats, but if you're
taking everyone from the bottomand you're saying this is what
everybody's getting, where isthat coming from?
As an older, the incumbents noton a political spectrum, but

(29:46):
the people who've been a staplein their community and they want
things a certain way, for acertain reason.
If you weren't running forgovernor, I'd have a different
way of posing this question, butyou have to be everybody's
governor.
So how do you reach thosepeople to let them know that, no
, this is not coming out of yourown?

Speaker 1 (30:01):
pocket.
And how does that make sense?
The government is designed totake in these tax dollars and
redistribute these tax dollars.
When we go to redistributethese tax dollars, we tend to
only give, for the large part,the top 1%, yeah.
So going back to Ronald Reagan,my first commander in chief,
reaganomics never worked.
His philosophy was let me giveto the CEO and those dollars

(30:25):
should precipitate.
They'll trickle down, yeah,right, but what?
We continue to see that theCEO's compensation package
continues to grow 200, 300, 400%.
Meanwhile, we're going to letgo the janitor, we're going to
let go the accountant, so that'sgoing to put more pressure on
the system.
And so Reaganomics never worked.
An economist would tell you itdoesn't work.

(30:49):
I'm going to come from adifferent approach.
It is not a Robin Hood, theycrafted the narrative that way.
But when you think about whatjust took place a few weeks ago,
$1.7 trillion go to the top 1%.
To be in the top 20% in oursociety, you need to have an

(31:09):
annual salary of $800,000.
Not everyone's going to be inthe $800,000 block.
So what will the other 79%?
What should they do?
What should the person that'smaking $153,000 a year?
What should they do?
They don't have the luxury ofhiring a tax attorney, as
millionaires and billionaires do.

(31:30):
They pay no taxes.
So who's paying for the roads?
Who's paying for theinfrastructure?
Who's paying for the schoolsystem?
Who's paying for the lights andwho's paying for the school
system?
Who's paying for the lights andthe utilities?
The other 79%?
Is it fair for the top 21% inour society to be able to build
big buildings for free?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
No, it doesn't sound like it and it's crazy because
even when you listen to abillionaire like Warren Buffett,
he always talks about this.
He's one of the good ones to,in my opinion, where he says no,
I want to pay my fair share.
There is no reason that mysecretary is paying more in
taxes than I am.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
That's right, and so it's because of lawmakers,
legislators such as myself, thatwrite these laws, that give
them carve outs, a way out.
We built in gray matter intothe system.
So my thought and belief islet's take care of the secretary
, let's take care of the janitor, and so that way we have

(32:26):
everyone in our society.
Let me just make this morenarrow to Georgia.
We have 11 million people.
Of that, 2.3 million that Itold you, that's living below
poverty level.
Can you imagine if they're ableto go from renting to home
ownership?
Don't you think that that 2.3million also want to be able to

(32:46):
live the American dream?
Don't you think that 2.3million would love to be able to
walk in the store like everyoneelse and help everybody make
more money?
Because if that CEO, if theydid it right, they'll be like
yeah, I want more people in themarketplace.
I want more folks to be able toafford my iPad, my goods and my

(33:06):
services Absolutely.
And now me as a lawmaker, Iwant more taxpayers right or
paying more by virtue of makingmore money.
So what better way to say let'sreally take the basement and
make it the ceiling right?
We haven't even talked aboutsmall black farmers.
How small black farmers arebeing displaced, because the

(33:27):
more commercial farmers that arewhite, they get subsidies at 10
to 12 times as much dollarsthan a small black farmer.
That's not right.
Small black farmers not lookingfor a handout.
They want an even playing field.
And when you give us an evenplaying field, what I discovered
?
We excel.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
We don't quit.
So I heard this recently and itwas something that Jesse
Jackson said.
They were asking him why wedominate in sports and I think
they were trying to maybe entraphim into saying something that
we have dominant genes orphysically we have certain
attributes.
But he said the reason we'redominating sports is because
sports is the only environmentwhere the rules are in the open.

(34:08):
As you can tell, with my ownproperty here, you know we are
not farmers yet I wouldn't callmyself that, but we have the
makings of it and I have no clueabout any of these subsidies
that you're talking about.
I heard of a story from thisgentleman I was telling you
about earlier who could not gethis cattle, he could not even
get his meat processed.

(34:30):
He had to drive all the way toFort Valley, to the university,
because they would not processfor him.
And these are challenges thatreal people have and I know I'm
speaking a different tongue hereto people who just like work a
regular nine to five and they goto work and they live in the
city and they don't really knowwhat that means for the rural
person and the black farmer outhere.

(34:50):
But it's challenging.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
And the reason why it's challenging, because
government should never be inthe business of building hurdles
and barriers for a category ofpeople.
Let's give everyone access.
Right, because once you haveaccess now, it's going to be
based on my own aspirations, myown abilities and my own talents

(35:12):
.
Right, it's even playing field.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
It's a meritocracy.
At that point, let's go, let'sgo.
Yeah, it's an even playingfield, it's a meritocracy.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
At that point, let's go let's go.
Yeah, and I appreciate the JesseJackson reference, because when
Jesse Jackson first ran forpresident in 1984, at that time
I was 18.
And I'm saying to myself man,we can see the first black
president of the United States,yeah, and I can vote.
So not only I have the abilityto serve my country, but I can

(35:41):
vote for Jesse Jackson.
Not to mention he has a coollast name, right.
But that taught me somethingthen.
Yeah, because although JesseJackson didn't become president,
he was exposing the system.
We were never taught the system, because what they did to
Shirley Chisholm in 1972, theywere saying to those that look
like you and I politics is notopen for you, it's not available

(36:05):
to you, the glass ceiling willnever be touched because we're
going to make sure you stay downhere, right, and so when you
think about where we are today,fast forward.
My grandmother would have been107 if she was still alive.
She left this world neverwitnessing a black president.
She didn't make it to 2008.

(36:26):
She did not make it to 2008.
Yeah, and so here mygrandmother looked at her
grandson, probably, and said youknow, jesse Jackson, he's
knocking down some barriers, but, derek, don't put your hope in
running for president, becauseit's never been done before.
Don't put your hope in playingbasketball at the NBA level
because they only take 1%, right, yeah, so focus on your

(36:48):
academics.
I was having theseconversations about to graduate
from high school and because weas a people, collectively, will
tell our children because wenever witnessed this, don't try
to become that.
So what we did?
We watched the game of footballand basketball, and even soccer
, the other football, the realfootball Right, because I'm

(37:11):
going to come for you.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I know, I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
And we got the World Cup coming.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh man, I'm so excited.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
We're excited, that's right, but we got the World Cup
coming here.
Oh man, I'm so excited.
We're excited, that's right,but we told our children we
invested in sports not onlybecause we realize we can
dominate it and it's not becauseGod gave us some superior gene,
right?
Jiminy Greek said the worstthing when he was on CBS Sports
and he was saying you know,black men can run faster because

(37:37):
they got larger quads andcalves and all this stuff.
Man, it was racist statement.
I don't know if you remember.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Jiminy Greek.
I don't remember him but I'veheard a million times as an
extra leg muscle or all kinds ofridiculous things and it's
funny.
I'm like, well, you must'venever been to a gym because
actually the white dudes in thegym they have the most massive
legs and calves I've ever seenin my life.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Ignorance yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Just ignorance, right .
But what we did as parents?
We would tell our children yes,get into football, get into
basketball, get into volleyball.
Because we realized that thehurdles and barriers Pele, great
phenomenal soccer, brokebarriers, jackie Robinson,
muhammad Ali we can just gothrough the list right Broke

(38:20):
these barriers for us to say no,we can dominate, and that's the
reason why you witness a lot ofus in the sports.
But then academia said we'regoing to have historically black
colleges and university toteach our own so they can
matriculate in our schools.
To teach our own so they canmatriculate in our schools.

(38:42):
Not because we didn't want togo to Harvard and Yale, not
because we were inferior, no, weweren't given access.
And so, going back to my pointabout the small black farmers,
so let's create a level playingfield so we can all participate.
And to come back to my 2.3million citizens in Georgia that
reside below the poverty level,they need to have a governor

(39:06):
that's willing to show up forthem, that's thinking about them
, making sure that they tooshould have a roof over their
head and food on the table and ahealthcare system available to
them when their family may needhealthcare.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
I have a couple of real critical questions I want
to ask here.
It's always fascinated me.
I saw what happened in 2008.
I was a big part of thatmovement.
I was obviously just superexcited about what was going on,
and we saw the internet andsocial media and what it did for
President Obama and how it gothim elected.
I was part of the movement.
I was volunteering, I wassending money, I was doing
everything else.

(39:42):
Right Point I'm making is youcan get someone who is totally
uninterested to be interested.
How do you do that with theblack constituents?
Because so many of us aren'tright.
I'm older now.
I'm interested just by sheernature of understanding what
critical role politics play inour lives every day.
The job you're running for asgovernor of the state of Georgia

(40:02):
is so critical.
It's going to have so muchimpact on my life personally and
my family.
I live here.
This matters to me a whole lot.
How do you rile up troops?
How do you wake up the youngbrother who said he doesn't vote
, has no clue, is 22 years old,should be doing it.
And the person who's mayberesentful because they're 45 and

(40:22):
why bother?
Long question, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, no, that's a very thoughtful one.
You have to demonstrate thatyou give a damn about people,
that you care about people.
Right?
I just got my constituent outof jail.
He was wrongfully and let mestress this word so clear so it
can come through your podcastwrongfully in prison for 13

(40:48):
months.
Wow, wrongfully, 13 months Inprison.
And if he was sitting on yourset he would tell you that
Derrick Jackson did not give upon him.
He was just released two daysago.
He sent me a text last night.
I want to read this, please.
Here he goes, man, this givesme chills.

(41:11):
He goes.
Great day, derek.
This is Shahid.
I made it home.
Great day, derek.
This is Shahid.
I made it home safely, thankGod.
I was calling you to let youknow that I was home and I thank
you for calling the courts onmy behalf and not giving up on
me.
I'd like to get together soonthis week, whenever you can.

(41:32):
My response Shahid welcome home.
I'm attending a family reunionthis weekend and back next week,
as I share with your sister,ines, I am working hard to
correct this injustice and yourstory and testimony will help me
solve this problem.
Until then, god bless and enjoyyour family and have a great

(41:56):
weekend.
Welcome home.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
That's wonderful, man .
I can't imagine what it woulddo to my family you know,
emotionally, my wife she's asoldier but what it would do to
my children, to her if youlocked me in a cage like an
animal for something I did notdo.
And to think that this issomething that happens and
people feel that they have thispower over you, that they own

(42:19):
you, they own your bodies andthey can do whatever they want.
So tell me about that.
How did you even get involvedin that?

Speaker 1 (42:26):
So again, just for your audience, I'm not a lawyer
but I know how to read.
I write the law for lawyers toread, for courts to interpret.
And in his case there was noevidence, not the stuff that
we're seeing now.
I mean, we're seeing citizensbeing detained and deported

(42:47):
because of the pigmentation oftheir skin.
92% of those who are beingpicked up right now never
committed a crime not part of agang.
So there's a system out therethat says you cannot wrongfully
go into somebody's home andthere's a system that says we
all demand and deserve dueprocess.

(43:09):
You cannot go from the streetsto prison without due process.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Without a phone call.
I told my wife yesterday.
I said if you don't hear fromme in 24 hours, because I've
never done this, I've neverdisappeared.
Sometimes I don't text back orcall back right away because I'm
busy, sure, but if you don'thear from me within 24 hours of
any given time, during thisclimate that we're living in,
just know that I'm gone.
Right, and it's crazy that Ihave to prepare my wife with

(43:36):
those words as I leave my house.
I have to go to court for an HOVviolation.
I got my ticket and now Ireceive a letter telling me that
I have to go to court on the12th, after the officer said no,
just pay it online, you're good, no points.
And ICE is there waiting for meto say hey, even though you're
a natural, well, they don't talkto you, but I am a naturalized

(43:58):
citizen.
Now Do I just get kidnapped,snatched and shipped off to El
Salvador?
I'm not even from there.
So what do I do?
And that's a real concern.
I'm not a criminal, never beenarrested, never been in jail,
never done anything wrong.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Pay your taxes.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Pay my taxes.
You know, think about my ageand how long I've been working
in this country and what I'vedone and the money that I've
made, the homes that I've bought, et cetera, to where I still
had to live with this actualconcern.
What made America what it wasis no longer.
I'm from a country where Icould not speak politically
negatively about the regime thatwas there.
It was a dictatorship, so wedidn't make jokes.

(44:34):
There was no jokes about thepresident and when here, whether
you like the president or not,whether it's a joke about obama
or about bush, that was always athing.
That was free speech.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
You could do whatever you want, and now you can't
right, it is a real concern andthey just negotiated a deal.
If the pigmentation looks likeyour skin and my skin color,
yeah, they won't send us to ElSalvador, they'll send us to
South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
That's better.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I know, I know you just gave me that.
Look like dude, what.
No one should be deported.
No, absolutely no one should bedetained.
I said it's in jest.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Right, but how racist it is to say we'll send the
black people To Africa, toAfrica, and so if you're Latino,
hispanic, we'll send you to ElSalvador, and then we're setting
something up in Venezuela.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
No, no.
First off, due process isexactly that, and due process is
only guaranteed in the UnitedStates.
It's not guaranteed in SouthSudan.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
You're not going to get there, for sure.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
It's not guaranteed in Zimbabwe, it's not guaranteed
in El Salvador.
They got other rules.
Yeah, so we don't want no onenaturalized, born, raised, going
through the process in betweenthe process, right?
No one should be leaving theUnited States Unless they have
due process.
Unless they have due process.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
It's incredulous to me that someone with 34 count
felonies.
And I don't know if you wantedto get into this, but it's hard
for me for a criminal.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
With an immigrant wife.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
With an immigrant wife to impose.
This might and createbrokenness in families and,
taking into consideration whatyou said, as you spoke to your
wife, but your wife should nothave a concern, ma'am, if my
husband leaves the house thismorning, go to work, he may not
come home.
Yeah, go to court, he may notcome home.

(46:37):
Yeah, he goes to court becausehe got a ticket.
And so the United States.
The hope and dream of theUnited States has yet to change.
I get your point, though, butthis is not the first time the
United States been in this kindof situation.
The most horrific situation forthis country, and will continue
to be a nightmare for thiscountry, was slavery.

(46:58):
Right, you brought individualsfrom another country to this
land and you enslaved them, youbought and sold them, you killed
them, you raped them.
My point is this democracysurvived the most hideous period
of this country's history.
Yeah, and so what we need to docollectively, and to get back to

(47:20):
the essence of your question,the way I am going about telling
people they should care aboutwho will become the next
governor of Georgia Georgia,because in 2026, that governor
will be at the most pivotal timeof this country.
In 2030.
Because in 2030, we'll beredrawing the congressional maps

(47:45):
.
In 2030, we'll be setting up.
If black people in this countrycan vote in 2032.
Because every 25 years,congress vote in accordance with
the Voting Rights Act.
If black people can havereauthorization to vote in
accordance with the votingrights act, if black people can
have reauthorization to vote inthis country can we renew right.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
This shit is I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, but that is
crazy.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
So there's a bigger challenge for us.
So it's not just derrickjackson want to become governor.
He's gonna focus on family eachand every day.
That sounds great.
He wants to take the minimumwage from $5.15 to $15, $20, and
$27.
Eventually he wants to abolishstate tax for nurses and

(48:25):
military and educators and thoseover the age of 65.
He wants to do all these greatthings that's going to help
mitigate this affordabilityconundrum.
He wants to do all these greatthings that's going to help
mitigate this affordabilityconundrum.
Yeah Right, he wanted to takethe two point three million
those who live in poverty out ofpoverty.
All those things sounds great.

(48:48):
But they also need to know thatDerrick Jackson is my level of
compassion and my level ofleadership to be able to stand
in front of the United StatesWhite House, wherever it may be,
Washington DC, and say that thepeople of Georgia not only is
going to vote and participate inthis country, not only we're

(49:11):
not going to gerrymander, butwe're going to make sure that
the rights and the guarantee ofthe American dream, as per the
constitution, will live on.
So why are they going afterpublic education?
Why are they going afterhealthcare?
Why are they going after socialsecurity and Medicaid, Because
those were always guaranteed inaccordance with the constitution

(49:33):
.
But what we need to do is riseup right.
No punt towards Atlanta Falcons.
To the essence of your questionwhen I talk to young people,
like I just did the other night,a room of about 30, 35, all
African-American young CEOs.
They're into Bitcoin, they'rerich.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Young entrepreneurs.
They're in their own space.
They're in the Bitcoin.
They're rich Youngentrepreneurs.
They're in their own space.
They're in podcasts, youtubeinfluencers.
They're all doing great things.
But one of them stood up andsaid we're really not interested
in politics and we were shockedthat you accepted our
invitation and we're going tohelp you win, because they had
the opportunity for two hours.
It's supposed to have been inone hour, yeah, but because the

(50:15):
conversation kept going and theykept asking questions, see,
because I told them I have myeight pillars.
I said but y'all can read mypillars, y'all can go to
VoteDerekJacksonorg and readabout it.
I said what questions do youhave?
Because you never had theopportunity to meet someone
running for governor.
So I said let's have aconversation.
I don't want to speak at you, Iwant to talk with you.

(50:41):
And I converted all 100% ofthem because they were like no
one never expressed that theycared.
So take your money, yes, butnot caring about the human being
.
I expressed to them in twohours, I care about you, about
the human being.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
How do you get that message out to the masses,
though?
Because you can only sit in somany rooms?
Even that resentful notresentful just person who's been
through it man, they're 40, 50years old and they're going.
I don't need to vote, I don'treally care about any of that.
How do you get a message out tothem?

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Yeah, so it goes back to folks like yourself.
Your podcast, shah Shahid, whojust got out of prison.
Hey, I mean, he's gonna betelling everybody.
Hey, I don't know about yourrepresentative, but let me tell
you about mine.
Yeah, because I'm sure, outsideof sleeping in his own bed and
eating his, his wife food, forthe first time in 13 months he

(51:30):
went and got a haircut.
He's in the barbershop talkingto folks and they're probably
saying well, I don't know myrepresentative, Because most
folks do not know I will tellyou we don't out here.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I don't mean to keep making this black and white
thing, because again you'rerunning for everyone.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
But I will tell you that I feel that this is
something that is primarilyinheritance with black folks in
terms of, like, knowing who's inpower, not so much power who's
in service, right, even here inmy County, I forget what my wife
was looking into and we startedlooking and we realized that
the majority of those people areblack.
I'm just like, wait, thesepeople are in government because

(52:06):
I don't live in a communitythat looks like me, right, I
look around, it's very rural,very.
You know rules are suburban andthat's it you know out here.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
No, you're exactly right, and so that's the reason
why, individually andcollectively, we all have to
play a part.
My beautiful queen reminds meall the time.
She said government touch youfrom the time you wake up to the
time you go to sleep, butgovernment also touch you even
if you don't wake up.
Somebody's going to pay yourestate taxes, capital gain taxes

(52:37):
.
You can't even be buried in theground until somebody pay.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Government yeah, you could choose to bury your head
in the sand if you want to andnot pay attention, but they're
paying attention to you, that'sright.
No matter what, you're involved.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
You are a numeric number to someone, so they may
not care about you as a person,but you are a stat for them.
We look at your stats andmedian household income.
We look at what kind of vehicleyou can purchase, what kind of
home you can purchase, theamount of money you make, the
taxes you pay.
But we should not bemarginalized only by our net

(53:10):
worth and how much taxes we canpay.
You are a human being, you are ahusband, you we can pay.
You are a human being, you area husband, you are a father, you
are a community leader, you arean entrepreneur.
You are all these other thingsother than just the number
somebody can get from your bankaccount.
And that's the message that Icontinue to convey, and I need
others to help me convey thatmessage.
And we can leverage technologytoo.

(53:32):
We got to show up on Zoom.
You may say you know what?
I can get 200 people on Zoom,great.
And once we realize what we cando individually and then we
turn around and create thisthing collectively.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Talk to me real quick about love, loss and resilience
, because I know you've had sometraumatic loss in your life and
I'm glad to see not only thatyou're standing, but, as you
mentioned earlier, the word isthriving for you to be where you
are today, to have love in yourlife, to have a family.
That is also thriving.
Talk to me about that.
How did you overcome that lossthat was so profound and how did

(54:10):
you get to?

Speaker 1 (54:13):
the place where you are today.
Yeah, so the Bible continues tospeak to me every time I read
it and in there it says God islove.
And because I pray every dayand because I have a devotion
every day, I realized that therewould be loss.
And when I lost my first wifeto breast cancer, her and I we
were together for 31 years.

(54:33):
That's incredible, and threeamazing daughters from that
union.
And when she died six years ago, my three daughters said dad,
we cannot lose another parent,cause they would see their
father outside of the house, ontelevision, press conferences,
at the Capitol, smiling, beinginfectious, laughing and joking.

(54:56):
But when I would come home,grieving, painful, I couldn't
even watch television because assoon as I'm thinking I'm going
to watch something that'scomical or action-packed, there
would be a scene in there abouta husband and wife and one lost
the other.
It was always these triggers.
And so my oldest daughter saiddad's not healthy mentally

(55:22):
because he's grieving.
And so I went and got checkedand they were like, yeah, you're
fine, you just got to getthrough this process.
And so learning how to loveagain and knowing what love is
and knowing that death will come, and I prayed to God.
I said, lord, I need a Proverbs31 queen.

(55:43):
And about 10, 11 months afterthat prayer, it's when someone
that I only knew because she wasa colleague and I met her in
2018 when she got elected- Okay.
So obviously we're in the samespace.
But I never looked at her likethat.
I was still married.
Yeah, she was married and,unbeknownst to me, she went
through a divorce.

(56:04):
The same year my wife died.
Now think about this, yeah, andhere I am praying for I'm
grieving still, but I'm prayingto have another wife.
Most folks would say one anddone.
Take the Coretta Scott King.
Coretta Scott King lost herhusband.
He was 38.
She never got married again.
When you love hard, it can bevery painful, but here I am

(56:28):
going through.
I call it in 2019, my Jobmoment.
I was reading the book of Job.
My neighbor gave me a bookabout Job.
Then I went to the scripture,opened up, started reading the
book about Job because she losther husband.
Now my neighbor much oldershe's like 20 years older than
me- Okay.

(56:48):
And so, while I'm going throughthis 10, 11month process,
speaking to my daughters, allthe time they're like Dad, you
got to start dating again.
I'm like I don't even know whatto say.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
What do we say these days?

Speaker 1 (57:01):
I don't even know.
I said I've been at the gamefor 31 years, bro, I really did
not know what to say when I seea woman, and so all my friends,
and family members.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
You have to ask for a phone number.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
You, and so all my friends and family members, you
didn't ask for a phone number,you had to ask for a DM.
Yeah, it was just, the wholegame had changed.
Right, right, yeah.
And so we were all in thekitchen and I said, ok, you know
what, I'll put myself out thereand dated a couple of women.
I didn't feel the energy.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
And they're very professional, doing very well
for themselves, well forthemselves.
But I didn't feel it until oneday we were debating against
this horrible bill that Georgiawas trying to pass.
And I'm in the well, which isin the front of the chamber
floor, where we get a chance todebate bills.
And here I am, I'm up heredebating this bill, got the

(57:47):
media on this side, you got thecameras over here and then you
got in the gallery, you gotcitizens up there, and so I have
a full grasp of my environment.
I got my talking points againstthis bill, why it's harmful.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Meanwhile, I watched Kamiya goback to her desk.
It seemed like God was puttinga light on her.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
And Kamiya is your present wife and Kamiya right.
She's walking by.
There's a spotlight on her.
Yes, was the wind blowing inthere in slow motion?

Speaker 1 (58:14):
oh, there's, no, there's, there are no windows in
there.
Right, there was like aspotlight on her and I'm saying
to myself oh, my goodness, okay.
So again I'm focused why weshould vote against this bill.
Meanwhile, I'm tracking on her.
I'm like, okay, all right, lord, so I I yield the whale, I go
back to my desk Her seat and myseat are five seats apart and I

(58:37):
said Kamiya, you got a moment,are you available for dinner?
So she's thinking me.
Being one of the senior rankingmembers in the Democratic Party
, she was serving her first termand I'm going to bring other
freshmen.
She thought it was going to bethat kind of situation, but no,
we were going through COVID.
This was February 2020.
She said I'm going to give youa date.

(58:57):
I said okay, all right perfect,because we want to make sure
that you are available.
She said okay, make a long storyshort.
We went on that date it was usand one other couple in this
restaurant, this big restaurant.
She thought I cleared the wholerestaurant.
We're on like the 25th floordowntown and our reservations
was at six.
We didn't leave the restaurantuntil 11 o'clock.

(59:19):
That's a good date.
You had a lot to talk about.
And here we are married.
This is our fourth year, fourthanniversary a beautiful blended
family of seven, four daughtersand three sons.
And so God demonstrated in mylife that, yes, I lost someone
that I love dearly and love hard, someone that was with 31 years

(59:42):
.
But that wasn't the end of mystory, it's just the end of a
chapter.
And here he blessed me with aphenomenal woman.
I mean, she loves God, she'sbeautiful inside and out, our
chemistry is amazing.
And she gave me anotherdaughter and three sons I never
had that I prayed for.

(01:00:03):
My first wife and I werelatively have big families, so
we always wanted a big family,but we only ended up with just
three daughters.
God reminded me of a prayerthat I prayed even long ago.
Here's your big family that youprayed for, and here's someone
that you can love, love hard.
And that resilience piece isincredible, because there are a

(01:00:26):
lot of families in Georgia thatare blended.
There are a lot of familiesthat have been broken.
There are a lot of familiesthat have been broken.

(01:00:58):
There are a lot of familiesthat they need to know that this
, too shall what love looks like, and it may come in different
forms, but in the end it's aboutfamily.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
And what I also hear talking to you is proficiency,
humility, selflessness and love,as you mentioned, and those
words are very, very important.
Those are things that you don'treally hear too much from even
a boss at work, let alone apolitician.
I want to ask about somethingthat sometimes I think is
conflicting.
So you're running as theDemocratic candidate Abortion,

(01:01:23):
for or against?

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Yeah, so that's a great question.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
You're a spiritual person.
Yeah, you know you're a man ofGod.
That can cause conflict, so howdo you deal with that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Bro.
I mean, my entire life has beenin conflict.
I believe in life, but I have.
During my 22 years in the Navy,I have caused death on behalf
of this country.
I've killed people, even incorporate America.
When GE was letting folks go, Ishould have been more vocal and
say, no, we're not going tofire them.

(01:01:57):
Why are we going to fire them?
Because we're in this recessionperiod.
It'll come back.
It was a conflict as an electedofficial.
To your point.
There are very vocal aboutabortion.
In fact, I'm very public, evenon my website, that I will
repeal House Bill 481.

(01:02:19):
House Bill 481 is what theycall the heartbeat bill.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
It's a six week abortion ban.
That's correct OK.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
That's the first bill that this current governor put
in place when he became governorand I'm on record saying this
would be the first bill that Iwould repeal.
It has brought more harm thangood.
My personal beliefs, mypersonal relationship with God
should not dictate to the many.
I can use it as a moral compassfor me and my family, but I

(01:02:51):
should not have the prerogativeand the power to inflict others
and create a conflict.
Let me tell you what I mean bythat.
Georgia is the top five in blackmaternal and infant mortality.
Since that bill In 2021, 169women simply trying to give

(01:03:12):
birth died in Georgia.
169 women died in 2021.
We may have only heard a coupleof names Candy and Amber.
A young lady died this year.
They kept her on life supportuntil the baby was born and then
they unplugged she was 26.

(01:03:33):
Until the baby was born andthen they unplugged she was 26.
And so in 2021, the same yearAmber and Candy died 169 women
died.
Also that same year, 776infants died.
So that's a bad bill thatinflicts pain and harm,
brokenness in families.
I would repeal that, despite menot believing in abortion.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Right, and this is, I think, where the lines should
not be blurred.
There's personal belief andpersonal internal conflict
versus duties and the greatergood.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
For the greater good.
Yeah For everyone.
You should be able to decide.
You and your wife should beable to decide, whatever that
situation may encounter.
We shouldn't have a law thatgives more power to the unborn
versus the mother that'scarrying a child.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
See how simple that sounds, because it just makes
sense.
And yet we're debating it, yetit's been repealed.
We had rules versus weightoverturned.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
So my four daughters should have the autonomy over
their body, like my three sons.
We have zero piece oflegislation in Georgia that
dictates your body and my bodyas a man Zero.
But we have 19 bills thatdictate a woman's body in
Georgia, from their mammogram totheir reproductive system and
everything in between.
So let the physician, thehusband and the wife and their

(01:04:59):
pastor dictate what's best forher.
I should be a supporter, not adictator.
Yeah, this bill House Bill 481,creates men to be a dictator.
You mentioned Roe v Wade and Iappreciate you mentioning that,
because when you think aboutwhere we are Roe v Wade chip,
chip, chip, affirmative actionchip chip chip, civil rights

(01:05:22):
chip, chip chip, human rightschip chip, chip, lgbtq they keep
chipping away.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yeah, well, that's how you make America great again
, right?

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I'm going to be a governor that's going to govern
for the greater good.
So you will be empowered, yourfamily will be empowered, to be
able to live however you sochoose, be able to go on a
vacation, to be able to earn.
We're going to remove thesehurdles and barriers, including
reproductive rights, fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
So this last question is really about your message
and the final words.
Why are you you specifically MrDerek Jackson, current state
representative of Georgia,gubernatorial candidate which,
by the way, what kind of word isthat?
Why can't it just begubernatorial?
Why?
You need to explain theetymology of the word to me
later on, but I'm not going to.
I digress.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
So why are you the only choice for us if we are to
move forward and progress as astate and elevate as a people?

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
If you examine candidates both on a Democratic
and a Republican side and youlook at our body of work I'm
going to use the word resume Ifyou look at all four of us
currently and there may beothers that jumps into the race.
I want everyone in Georgia, allvoting population, which is

(01:06:44):
about 5 million, 6 million ofthe 11 million that can vote I
want them to examine all of us,democratic and Republican at the
same time, and you get all ofus, democratic and Republican at
the same time, and you get allof our resumes.
Print them out.
All citizens in Georgia Rightnow, there are four Democrats
and two Republicans.

(01:07:05):
That's six.
So lay out all six resumes andyou, citizens, you are the
employer.
Now I want to be clear on thisyeah, voters are the employers.
We, as public servants, are theemployees.
We should be working for theemployer.
So print out all six resumesand look at all six of them and

(01:07:27):
then do a true apples to applescomparison and say which one you
want to hire, not just for theprimary but also for the general
election.
Yeah that's the reason why I'msaying look at all of us,
democrat and Republican.
So I'm asking everyone who canwin the general election of
November 2026.

(01:07:47):
When you look at all six of ourresumes, it is what it is.
I can't go back in time.
No one can go back in time andchange it.
And so let's examine all six ofthese resumes.
My resume is very clear 42years of leadership, 42 years of
service, educated husband,father, and I never quit If you

(01:08:11):
want a governor that's going towake up every day looking for
ways to improve the quality oflife for you and your family.
My resume is it?
Qualified, demonstratingintegrity, humanity,
understanding what compassion is, experience loss yeah, 42 years
of experience, because a lot ofpeople are going to use

(01:08:34):
buzzwords and their campaigncame up with quotes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Yeah Right, I live this you are the I get it
candidate.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
I live this, yeah.
One candidate said they'rebattle tested and never been in
a battle.
One candidate says I haveexperience, but they only been
in for one term.
I live this.
If you are the CEO of abusiness and you looking for
someone to hire to be thepresident of your business, you

(01:09:06):
want to look at these sixresumes and say this is the
person that going to help mewith my enterprise.
It won't be the person wherethe father just wrote a $10
million check and his only timethat he's quoting about
leadership is when he was theteam captain of the UGA football
team.
Compared to a LieutenantCommander's leadership or a CEO

(01:09:30):
in corporate America and so myresume to your listening
audience.
I'm asking everyone print outtheir resume, go to their
website.
I just want to be clear.
When you go to their website,you're not going to see what
they're going to do if theybecome governor.
Their website just says donatemoney here.
Another candidate says we donot want career politician.

(01:09:54):
I don't even know what thatmeans.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
When your experience is not what you'd like it to be,
it's easy to just throw thatout there to say, hey, this
guy's been in here too long,he's corrupt.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Right, because the person that sit and occupied the
Oval Office, he said the samething I'm an outsider and look
how that worked out, and look athow that's working out Right.
I say to you all if you wantsomeone that's status quo, I am
not that person.
But if you want a fighter, ifyou want someone that's truly
going to govern in the manner inwhich you hired me to do, I am

(01:10:26):
that person that's going todemonstrate honesty and courage
and commitment and integrity andcompassion, because that's what
my mother, marie Jackson, anurse of 40 years, taught her
only son.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
That's powerful.
Where can we find you?
Where can we support, whetherit's social media website, Can
you just tell us real quick?

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Yeah, my website is VoteDerekJacksonorg.
I'm all things derrick jackson.
You can see me.
If you don't see the guy withthe bow tie, it's not you,
that's not me, that's not me.
It's got to be the guy with thebow tie.
Um, I'm on instagram.
I used to be on twitter, butwhen elon musk bumped his head,

(01:11:11):
I got off of twitter or x,whatever they're calling it.
Now my team just told me I needto get on Blue Sky.
I'm not on there yet.
Never even heard of it.
It's another social media.
Again, I'm trying to be at allplaces.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Yeah, you're going to be everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
I'm trying to be at all places.
I just got on TikTok and so I'mDerek Jackson on there, but
again, look for the guy with thebow tie, because there is a bad
derrick jackson, you know abouthim there is a, he's younger
there is a bad one, so so right.
So there's a bad boy, derrickjackson, out there, but I'm the
derrick jackson that love to bemarried.
Yeah, I'm the derrick jacksonthat treat my wife like a queen.

(01:11:46):
I'm that derrick jackson thatloves family.
Yeah, right, he's theantithesis of everything and um.
But the last point I will leaveis this, and that's why I
appreciate your questions,because your questions were not
around my eight pillars.
A lot of it came out.
Your questions were around meas the man, me as the husband,

(01:12:09):
me as a father, as a retiredlieutenant commander, me as a
executive in corporate America,and me as an elected official,
as a public servant, me as mymother's only son, and so I
appreciate your question.
I appreciate this time that wespent together because it
allowed for me to again open upthat aperture of who I am, and I

(01:12:33):
think every elected officialshould go through an
interviewing process, if youwill, because you're the
employer, I'm the employee, yeah.
So thank you for thisopportunity to allow for me to
share a little more about whoDerek Jackson is and what I will
be as governor of Georgia.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
That's wonderful and I thank you for being here,
Before I shut it down.
we have a tradition on this showand let me say again, it's been
an honor, it's been a pleasure.
It's really refreshing to talkto someone who is an actual
person, who's not just walkingaround being a bunch of talking
points.
But again, thank you for beingon the podcast.
Now.
Traditionally, what we do atthe end of each show, we have

(01:13:14):
the guests or one of theco-hosts to read the outro notes
.
You can just read it as futuregovernor of Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Okay, all right, let's make it happen.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I'll hand that over to you.
I made it big enough becauseyou're not wearing your glasses.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
I appreciate that.
All right, take us away.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasesupport us by following the show
.
Leave us a five star review onApple podcast.
Not one, not two, not three,but five, see, because with your
support, podcasts like ourswill continue not only to
survive, but thrive.

(01:13:47):
So thank you so much forlistening.
We'll catch you next week whenwe share conversations
surrounding real issues notmanufactured issues, but real
issues we deal with everydayliving, manhood matters.
We're out, let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
That ought to be the best one I've had.
Hustlin' hot, the pulse of life, and I want you to know it's
climb.
Real talk echoes in fire time.
Experts and friends, a powerfulblend Tacklin' issues that
never end.
From our perspective, we'retrue.
A podcast for all but our pointof view.