Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Cruises Past Trump-Backed Primary Opponent, Avoids Runoff
Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will easily defeat a primary challenge from Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA).
Dave Wasserman, editor of the Cook Political Report, called the race for Raffensperger, and noted he met the threshold to avoid a runoff.
I’ve seen enough: GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) wins the #GASOS primary outright, defeating Trump-endorsed Rep. Jody Hice (R).
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) May 25, 2022
The Georgia secretary of state drew Trump’s ire January of last year, after he certified his state’s election results for President Joe Biden.
Amid the 2020 election drama, Trump made a now-infamous phone call in which he asked Raffensperger to find him enough votes to take the state.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump told Raffensperger.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” Trump also said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger challenged Trump as “wrong.” Two months later, Trump endorsed Hice to unseat him.
“Jody has been a steadfast fighter for conservative Georgia values and is a staunch ally of the America First agenda,” Trump said in a statement. “Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity. I have 100% confidence in Jody to fight for Free, Fair, and Secure Elections in Georgia, in line with our beloved U.S. Constitution.”
Raffensperger also released a statement in which he accused Hice of undermining faith in Georgia’s elections.
“Few have done more to cynically undermine faith in our election system than Jody Hice,” he said. “We saw in January what Georgia voters will do to candidates who use that rhetoric.”
In January of 2021, Trump told Georgians at a rally he would work to unseat both Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA).
“I’ll be here in a year in a half campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state,” he said.
Kemp cruised to re-election Tuesday in a drubbing of Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate, former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA).
