Can Brad Raffensperger Thwart a Stolen-Election Offensive in Georgia?

The embattled secretary of state has refuted attacks from Donald Trump and his handpicked primary candidate. Will Republicans in the Peach State reward him?

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A few months ago, if you asked the median Georgia election-watcher about Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s chances in his upcoming Republican primary, they’d likely have responded (depending on their own feelings) with a rueful wince or a smirk: Yeah, that guy’s dead in the water.

You wouldn’t have to ask why. When Raffensperger became a household name in late 2020, it wasn’t under circumstances designed to endear him to the Republican electorate. In the wake of the presidential election, as then-President Donald Trump thundered that the vote had been rigged in his opponent’s favor in Georgia (and many other states), Raffensperger was perhaps the most prominent state-level Republican official to take Trump’s lies head-on. And as Trump has labored to turn the 2022 midterms into his own personal 2020 revenge tour, he has made Raffensperger a key target, recruiting four-term congressman and former pastor Rep. Jody Hice to return to the state to try to unseat him. Hice has modestly outraised Raffensperger in the contest, ending the latest filing period with $100,000 more cash on hand after outspending the incumbent $1.7 million to $1.3 million.

“Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity,” Trump said in a statement last year. “Jody will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!”  

Yet as primary day arrives, there’s something strange underfoot in Georgia. Recent polls have found Raffensperger and Hice neck-and-neck, with a plurality of the electorate still undecided in the four-way contest.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Raffensberger has integrity. Very few people in public life do. All the incentives, including his own personal preference were in favor of him “finding” 11000 votes. And he chose to do what was right instead, at personal cost. I’m glad he won.

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  2. AU_88

    May I just say this?

    We beat Jody Hice's ASS without the need for a runoff tonight!

    Eat it, Drumpf cultists. We started taking the party back tonight, RIGHT HERE IN THE THIRTEENTH EFFING COLONY.

    BRAD WINS.

    Choke on it, you cultists.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Mike B

    I am greatly concerned that Trumpies are systematically purging honest state and local elections officials like Raffensperger, and that far too few voters are paying attention. And the rank, cynical, blatant, breathtaking hypocrisy of declaring the Trump toadies the ones who will stand up for "election integrity" is infuriating at the same level as Russian propaganda against Ukraine.

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    Bada Bing

    One would expect Hice to know God hates liars.

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    Bill Nelson

    After reading the comments here that have Jody Hice as evil incarnate, I looked at his campaign website.
    https://www.jodyhice.com/platform
    Skipping the over the top opposition to HR 1 (which I oppose for federalist reasons, there isn’t much there elections wise. Worse that you’ll see is a desire to spend a lot of money needlessly (full time monitoring of ballot drop boxes) and one has to assume a lot of time spent chasing any type of fraud allegation. The proposal that only the Sec. of State office is the only one who can Send out absentee ballots won’t fly because counties run elections.
    The office has very little authority to impact elections.

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  6. Avatar photo
    The Bell Tower

    “Trump-endorsed candidate for the job of insurance commissioner….”

    Really? Who’s he backing for Peach Tree High School student body president?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Mike B

      Ha! That deserves more than one like.

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    Rjosephpaquette

    Voting here in Texas, both last March and todays run offs, I use Trump endorsements as a simple voting guide. I just vote for the NON-Trump endorsed candidate. It makes my decision making pretty simple.

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      Mike B

      Right, a Trump endorsement is automatically disqualifying in my book too.

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    John D. Wright

    Trump's grip won't last forever. One thing about targeting a group that is traditionally uninterested in politics is that they will lose interest soon enough. Trump went for white blue collar Democrats at the expense of educated professional Republicans. In the short run that pays at least somewhat but it won't in the long run. Those professionals haven't missed an election in decades. They put Biden over the top. Those Trump gained are habitually fickle about showing up to vote and after he is gone will likely settle back into their normal patterns.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Peter S.

      I look forward to the blood sport to come, when everyone from Hannity to Trump Jr. vies to become heir to the Maga. But then I remember that you have to be careful what you wish for. Maybe none of them have the charisma to hold the Trump bloc together and get them to show up to the polls, but what if one of them does?

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      Aylene Wright

      🤞

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  9. Avatar photo
    Israel Bigelow

    I laughed at the "keep your insurance from going woke" quip but then I remembered the recent hubbub over State Farm distributing LGBT kids books. What strange times we live in.

    Here's hoping Kemp and Raffensperger win reelection and Trump doesn't get the nomination on 2024.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Aylene Wright

    I think this is the part of the article that more political reporters should keep in mind:

    "The reality is that many voters going to the polls Tuesday won’t see the race as a head-to-head test between Trump and Raffensperger; they simply haven’t been following along to the political storylines that closely."

    Yes, exactly. That's what so much of the "Trump voters are all members of the Trump Cult" narrative misses. Voting for a politician in an election isn't the same thing as being an obsessive fan hanging on every Tweet (or "Truth") sent by that politician. Maybe Trump has more enthusiastic cult members than other politicians. But there are many Trump voters who don't actually pay attention to everything Trump is up to these days.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Mike B

      Calling tweets on Truth Social "Truths" is my candidate for best Orwellian double-speak of the year. (Although the name "Truth Social" is itself a strong contender.)

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    2. Avatar photo
      Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

      That's not reassuring. A lot of Trump voters never actually paid attention to politics until elections became mix martial arts cage matches. They'll still come out to vote for the team in the orange trunks. Whether obsessive fan or dutiful citizen every vote counts.

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