Whoever emerges as the Republican nominee for secretary of state will advance to the general election. The winner of that race in the fall will eventually oversee Georgia elections in 2024. And as we learned in 2020, that job could be the difference between upholding the democratic process and destroying it.
Raffensperger refused to accede to Trump’s demands, telling him at one point: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
Trump lost the state but vowed to punish Raffensperger, recruiting Hice to run for the office.
Unlike Perdue in the governor’s race, Hice’s relentless focus on the 2020 election has paid political dividends. The integrity of the election appears to be the dominant (and, really, only) issue in the secretary of state race.
In Georgia, a primary candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote to advance to the general election. In a four-way contest, it’s possible Raffensperger and Hice could face off in a June 21 primary runoff election.
It’s impossible to overstate the stakes here. Consider:
1. Trump is showing every indication of running for president again in 2024.
2. Georgia is widely expected to be a battleground in that election.
3. If past is prologue, the results — no matter who wins — will be narrow.
4. And Trump would be very likely to exert pressure on the state’s election officials to ensure he wins.
All of that means it makes a HUGE difference whether Georgia’s top election official is someone who has stared Trump down and stood his ground before, or someone who is running expressly on the lie that the 2020 election was somehow stolen.
The choice is very clear. What’s less clear is who Georgia Republicans will choose.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism