 Carlaw gained support from all his frontbenchers and many of his backbenchers plus former backbencher and former MP Ross Thomson.Jackson Carlaw launched his campaign on 15 January 2020, focusing on the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections in 2021 and the next council elections in 2022, Jackson Carlaw built his campaign on wanting to spend the next eighteen months leading up to the elections at the Scottish Parliament to take down Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party in the process.Carlaw nominated Euan Waddell as his campaign manager, with MSPs Rachael Hamilton MSP and Liam Kerr MSP being co-chairs of his campaign.