CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Being as well known as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger would be a dream for many ambitious politicians.
“I think most people by now know who I am,” the Republican candidate for governor joked Tuesday as someone put up signs with his name before a speech in the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee.
But that fame may wound Raffensperger in next Tuesday's primary because it stems from opposing Donald Trump's attempts to overturn Joe Biden's presidential victory in 2020. He was one of a few Georgia leaders who earned Trump's scorn by rejecting his falsehoods, and even though Raffesperger won reelection in 2022, many Republicans still view him as a traitor.
Now the 70-year-old is spending millions of his own money trying to reintroduce himself as the person he was before that moment in the spotlight.
“I really think I need to let people know that I’m actually a conservative Christian businessman,” Raffensperger told reporters recently. “If you don’t realize, that’s where I cut my teeth."
It's unclear whether Republican voters are willing to forgive Raffensperger's political heresy in a party that remains in thrall to Trump. He's faced threats over the years, and spokesperson Ryan Mahoney said Raffensperger was informed of a credible one Monday as he began flying around the state on a campaign swing.
A sheriff's office in Mississippi received a four-page document including a picture of Raffensperger with the word “boom” written across his forehead, Mahoney said. Law enforcement agencies did not immediately acknowledge an investigation.
When authorities swept the Macon airport ahead of Raffensperger's arrival Tuesday, a police dog found a suspicious object that prompted an evacuation. It was not a bomb, and Raffensperger gave his speech on the tarmac.
Raffensperger is trying to offer himself as an alternative to Georgia voters who may be recoiling from an expensive and ugly primary featuring Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson, who are spending huge sums attacking each other.
One Raffensperger television advertisement portrays Jones and Jackson firing guns wildly into the air while Raffensperger takes careful aim at targets one by one. Another depicts “creepy Rick Jackson” and “big baby Burt Jones” throwing mud at each other in a barnyard.
"All they have been talking about is each other and running each other down," Raffensperger said Tuesday. "No one’s talking about the most important person. And that’s our fellow Georgian.”
Trying to shed the baggage of 2020
Raffensperger likely has a narrow shot at the nomination. Even if he qualifies for a June 16 runoff, the campaign could quickly turn into a brawl over which candidate is the most conservative, an environment in which Raffensperger would face even more severe attacks over disloyalty to Trump.
Because he's directly responsible for election administration as secretary of state, Raffensperger has been a punching bag for many Republicans, even some who aren't notable Trump loyalists. His relations have been particularly bad with Jones, one of 16 Georgia Republicans who declared themselves "duly elected and qualified" electors for Trump in 2020 even though Biden won the state.
Georgia Republican Party delegates voted in June to ban Raffensperger from running under the party's banner, saying he's hostile to Trump, but the party qualified him anyway. A judge last month dismissed an effort by two voters to throw him off the primary ballot.
Raffensperger's campaign estimates that a fifth of the state's Republican electorate would never vote for him, a cadre they describe as “never-Raffensperger.”
Sabrina Mao, a Cobb County resident who attended a Jones campaign appearance Tuesday in Smyrna, said, “Everybody knows there is fraud in voting.”
“I don’t think he was doing anything good,” Mao said of Raffensperger. “He’s just a follower. I don’t think he’s a leader.”
Raffensperger is definitely a throwback to an older Republican Party. While other campaigns deploy blaring country music and barbecue, Raffensperger’s go-to move is a speech to a Rotary Club.
He sold his concrete reinforcement company, Tendon Systems, for an undisclosed amount in 2023. Through last week, Raffensperger had loaned his campaign $6 million and spent or committed at least $4.2 million on ads. That pales next to Jackson and Jones, who are self-funding their campaigns at unprecedented levels. Jones has loaned his campaign $17 million, while Jackson has dumped a staggering $83 million into his electoral bid.
Besides Jones and Jackson, Raffensperger is also running against Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, who appeals to many of the same voters as Raffensperger.
On the Democratic side, top candidates include former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond.
Geoff Duncan, a former Republican lieutenant governor who also spurned Trump's push to overturn the 2020 election, is running as a Democrat as well.
A focus on jobs instead of elections
Raffensperger stands behind how Georgia's elections are run, but quickly pivots to preferred themes of creating high-paying jobs, cutting property taxes, enhancing school safety and supporting Trump's efforts to increase manufacturing jobs.
“If you can create and, build great paying jobs for people, you can change their lives,” Raffensperger said last month when answering a reporter's question about Georgia's voting system.
He frequently portrays himself as standing up against Democrat Stacey Abrams, a frequent critic of Republican election administration, hoping to unite Republicans who despise Abrams.
"Brad Raffensperger secures Georgia’s elections like Joe Biden secures the border — and no amount of false advertising can erase that record,” Jones campaign manager Kendyl Parker wrote to television stations Tuesday, demanding that they take down Raffensperger's mudslinging ad, which also mentions Abrams and Biden.
Among the supporters Raffensperger needs most are the suburban voters who have backed conservatives but have been leery of Trump. For example, in 2022, many cast ballots for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp but voted for Democrat Raphael Warnock for Senate because they were turned off by GOP candidate Herschel Walker.
Katherine Weber of suburban Sandy Springs, for example, described herself as “Republican, but not pro-Trump” after she cast her ballot last month.
“I voted for Brad Raffensperger,” Weber said. “I feel like he is a man of integrity and not swayed by politics. He doesn't do whatever Trump says.”
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