FIRST ON FOX: A billionaire gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, who has said there is “no bigger supporter of Trump right now than I am,” is facing questions after a healthcare company within his business empire criticized President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

Rick Jackson has spent months trying to cast himself as the race’s most pro-Trump candidate who will be Trump’s “favorite governor” despite Trump’s endorsement of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. However, one of his companies has repeatedly criticized the OBBBA, a landmark GOP legislative package that Trump endorsed and signed into law last year.

Jackson Physician Search, a subsidiary of Jackson Healthcare, said on its website in September 2025 that the bill’s “sweeping cuts to Medicaid and ACA programs raise serious concerns about access, equity, and sustainability,” and warned that some hospitals may need to “adapt or close their doors.”

In a February 2026 recruitment report, the company also said the law was projected to cause “between 10 and 15 million people” to lose health coverage, while Medicare and Medicaid cuts were creating “significant financial pressure” across healthcare organizations and considerable “fear and uncertainty” about what lies ahead.

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“Rick supports the Big Beautiful Bill. Period,” Mike Schrimpf, a spokesperson for Jackson’s campaign, told Fox News Digital. “Growing up in the projects, Rick believes in the dignity of work and is a strong proponent of work requirements for that reason. He has long opposed Obamacare and regularly touts President Trump’s healthcare policies, like TrumpRx, on the campaign trail. That’s why Rick Jackson will be Donald Trump’s favorite governor.”

Schrimpf added that “for months” Democrats have been attacking Jackson for his support of the OBBBA, noting “this attack makes about as much sense as accusing a pilot of hating to fly.”

At a campaign event last month in Thomasville, Georgia, Jackson told constituents that he thought there were “many parts” of the OBBBA that were “great,” and said he would be paying “40 percent more in taxes” if it had not passed, and defended work requirements in the bill by saying they motivate people to be productive and get off Medicaid.

“The worst thing that we can do is tell people — is get people relying on government where they have no incentive to work,” Jackson told constituents. 

“It’s the most dehumanizing thing that you can do,” he continued. “God made us to be productive.”

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Jackson has also drawn himself closer to Trump by praising his tariff policies. “I believe in fairness,” Jackson said in March. “Don’t want somebody to take advantage of us in a business transaction. That’s what he’s trying to do. So I support.”

Meanwhile, Jackson, who reportedly modeled his campaign launch after Trump with a celebratory elevator descent, said he can’t name a single White House policy he disagreed with, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

But, despite these assertions from Jackson on the campaign trail, his remarks stand at stark odds with his physician search firm warning in a February white paper about “considerable fear and uncertainty” for what is to come as the result of the OBBBA.

 “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is projected to cause between 10 and 15 million people to lose health coverage,” the white paper notes, citing new public healthcare work requirements implemented by the OBBBA. “Medicare and Medicaid cuts are creating significant financial pressure across healthcare organizations,” it continues.

The same report, which includes comments from the firm’s senior leadership and other content on the search firm’s website, also slammed H-1B visa provisions in the OBBBA aimed at restoring integrity to the immigration program that has reportedly been rife with fraud, arguing it would be a net negative for the healthcare industry.

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The materials and resources also said OBBBA would promote physician burnout, would likely force rural hospitals to shut down, would discourage hopeful physicians from going to school, thus exacerbating the existing doctor shortage, and briefly emphasized the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs on physician recruitment.

“My team works with clients throughout the Midwest who are facing department closures if they can’t hire a physician or advanced practice provider. For proof, just look at the number of labor and delivery departments forced to close in the past few years,” said Senior Vice President of Recruiting at Jackson Physician Search, Tara Osseck. “Now, recent policy changes — including provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and increased fees affecting international visas — are adding new layers of complexity to an already challenging physician recruitment environment.”

“The implications are significant,” Osseck adds. “Coverage losses can lead to increases in uncompensated care, placing additional strain on already thin operating margins. When financial pressure mounts, healthcare organizations may delay service expansions, reduce hiring plans, or freeze recruitment altogether.”

The OBBBA, a wide-ranging bill, included reforms to the federal student loan program aimed at making education more affordable. However, Regional Vice President of Recruiting at Jackson Physician Search, Tonya Hamlin, warned the reforms will actually make it harder for hopeful physicians to get to college.

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“These reforms could force students to absorb the difference through private loans or personal resources,” Hamlin wrote in a blog post on the search firm’s website. “They could also cause lower-income students to reconsider attendance altogether.”

Hamlin went on to warn that with fewer people able to go to medical school, the shortage of physicians will only get worse for hospitals and clinics.

“Despite these additional hurdles, clinicians and trainees must not be deterred,” Hamlin encouraged. “Stay focused on the higher purpose of your calling while staying informed, planning ahead financially, and engaging in ongoing advocacy.”

The Republican primary race for Georgia governor has been a messy one between Jackson and other frontrunner candidates, including Jones, Attorney General Chris Carr, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In particular, Jones and Jackson have been sparring over who is more aligned with Trump.

“This Primary Election is very simple,” Jones says on his campaign website. “There is one authentic conservative who has fought for President Trump.”

Jackson, meanwhile, donated $1 million to the president’s political action committee, MAGA Inc. less than two months before he jumped into the race in February and has faced backlash for cutting 6-figure checks to the presidential campaigns of Trump’s former GOP rivals during the 2024 Republican primary. 

Jackson also reportedly ran an ad against Raffenspeger portraying him as the Biblical character Judas in an attempt to portray him as a traitor for defying Trump’s efforts to challenge Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The Republican primary to see who will move on to the general election in Georgia’s gubernatorial fight will take place on May 19. The first and only debate between the candidates is scheduled for Monday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jackson Physician Search.

New research is suggesting a strong association between mouth bacteria and gastric cancer.

The study, published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, examined the gut microbiome in stool and the oral microbiome from saliva and the tongue.

The China-based researchers with BGI Genomics analyzed 404 samples from Chinese patients with gastric cancer in one group and chronic gastritis in another.

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Gut microbes were different in gastric cancer, the researchers found, unveiling 28 varying gut species. 

Most were oral bacteria, including Streptococcus — bacteria that can sometimes cause strep throat — lactobacillus and other lactic acid bacteria.

Twenty oral-gut species were found in both saliva and stool and were more common in the gut of gastric cancer patients.

The findings suggest the transmission of these bacteria from mouth to gut, after finding that the oral bacteria matched closely to the gut bacteria in the same person, according to genetic comparisons.

The researchers suggest that saliva and stool samples could help indicate patterns that are linked to stomach cancer, although more research is required before testing is ready for clinical use.

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“Collectively, these findings underscore the critical role of the oral-gut microbiome axis in [gastric cancer],” the researchers concluded in the study publication.

Since this is a cross-sectional analysis, the results cannot prove that these bacteria cause cancer, but they do suggest a strong association.

Dr. Brian Slomovitz, director of gynecologic oncology and co-chair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, talked about the “initiator-promoter” model of this study in an interview with Fox News Digital.

“[The study] demonstrates how the microbiome of one area of the body can migrate and affect the ability of cancers to develop in another part of the body,” said Slomovitz, who was not involved in the new study. 

“The initiator in gastric cancers is usually inflammatory, such as H.pylori infection,” he continued. 

“This inflammation leads to damaged mucosal cells where the lactic acid-producing bacteria can colonize. This helps to explain why cancers still develop even after treating H. pylori infection.”

The new findings could be applied to using the saliva for early cancer detection, Slomovitz suggested, which may help identify the disease even in pre-cancer states.

“Perhaps we will learn that by altering the microbiome, we can help better treat cancers (in combination with immunotherapy or chemotherapy) or even prevent cancer,” he said. 

“These results will build a foundation for future research. However, we are not ready to incorporate this into clinical practice.”

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Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel also weighed in separately on the study, noting that awareness around the importance of the gut microbiome on overall health has been growing.

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“There is a correlation between the bacteria found in the gut and neurogenerative disease and increased cancer risk,” he told Fox News Digital. 

“It is very important that we work toward a healthy microbiome in the gut to decrease the risk of inflammation and cancer.”