Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who stood against President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the pivotal southeastern state, has officially announced his candidacy for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2026.
His announcement on Wednesday intensifies an already contentious GOP primary featuring Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and state Attorney General Chris Carr.
Despite his long-standing conservative credentials, Raffensperger is likely to face backlash from Trump, who recently endorsed Jones for governor.
“I’m a conservative Republican, and I’m prepared to make the tough decisions. I follow the law and the Constitution, and I’ll always do the right thing for Georgia no matter what,” Raffensperger stated in a campaign video. “As governor, I’ll deliver a bold conservative agenda and build Georgia even stronger.”
Raffensperger’s proposed agenda includes eliminating the state income tax, capping property taxes for seniors, removing taxes and fees on homebuyer closing costs, expanding tax credits for parental school choice, banning puberty-blocking drugs in gender-affirming care, and eliminating what he terms “woke curriculums” from schools.
His campaign emphasized a commitment to collaborate with Trump and congressional leaders to revive jobs in Georgia, deport criminal aliens, and restore law and order statewide.
At 70, Raffensperger, alongside Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, declined to support Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow win in Georgia during the 2020 election.
In a January 2020 phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to change the election outcome, to which Raffensperger responded that the president’s data was incorrect, asserting, “we believe our numbers are right.”
This confrontation earned Raffensperger Trump’s ire, leading to primary challenges against both him and Kemp in the 2022 elections. However, both candidates successfully defeated their Trump-backed challengers and won their general elections.
Kevin Donohoe from the Democratic Governors Association remarked that Raffensperger’s entry into the race adds a new layer of complexity to an already chaotic primary, posing challenges for Burt Jones and Chris Carr.
Raffensperger’s announcement followed the entry of former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan into the governor’s race as a Democrat, seeking to succeed term-limited Kemp. Duncan has been a vocal critic of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and has since switched parties, endorsing Biden and Harris in the upcoming presidential race.
Duncan now joins a Democratic primary field that includes former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond, and former State Sen. Jason Esteves.
While Georgia has shifted from a traditionally conservative state to a competitive general election battleground, Republicans have maintained control in all gubernatorial elections since 2002.
