A number of Georgia’s top Republicans running for reelection in 2022 are pushing back on former President Donald Trump’s claims about the last election while still putting election security at the forefront of their campaigns.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger vaulted to the top of Trump’s hit list after publicly denying his claims of rampant state voter fraud in the 2020 general election, and both are facing primary challenges from Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022. Kemp is running against former Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue, whose loss to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff was at least partially caused by depressed GOP turnout following the election claims by Trump and his allies, while Georgia State Rep. Jody Hice will challenge Raffensperger.
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The pair received positive media coverage for taking strong stances against Trump’s assertions of widespread election fraud, yet they were heartily criticized by the Left after Kemp signed SB 202 into law in March of 2021.
Both Kemp and Raffensperger maintain that SB 202 not only expands opportunities for Georgians to vote but also makes the state “No. 1” for election security, but Raffensperger is still calling on the state Legislature to take additional election security steps before ballots are cast.
“I want to make sure that the General Assembly this year passes a constitutional amendment that only American citizens can vote in Georgia elections,” Raffensperger, who is also calling on Congress to similarly amend the U.S. Constitution, told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
He is also pressing for legislation ensuring poll worker protections and “transparency” measures “for any monitors of both political parties so they can look at what the process is, and they feel comfortable and they feel confident of what is actually going on with the workings of the elections.”
He further claims that Hice’s Trump-backed election “lie” makes it impossible for him to “be elected statewide.”
“I am standing on the truth, and I’m standing on my integrity, and my opponent is not standing on the truth. He’s standing on a lie. That’s a dangerous spot for a pastor to be,” Raffensperger added. “I am the only Republican that can win in November 2022 as secretary of state.”
Unlike Raffensperger, Kemp does not believe Georgia needs to pass additional election security measures in 2022. He specifically shot down a measure to ban ballot drop boxes pushed by state Senate leader Butch Miller, who is one of three Republicans running to replace sitting Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who will not seek another term.
“You need to speak individually to those legislators. I think the action we took on drop boxes to make them available is the right thing to do for Georgians, but it also needs to be a secure process,” Kemp explained. “And I think that’s what the General Assembly has done.”
Trump announced in July that he would not “support or endorse” Miller “because of his refusal to work with other Republican Senators on voter fraud and irregularities in the State” and called for “strong and effective primary challengers for the very important Lieutenant Governor position!”
Still, all the top Georgia Republicans have pushed back on President Joe Biden’s claims that SB 202 is “Jim Crow 2.0,” as well as his efforts to pass the For the People and John Lewis Voting Rights acts, two new federal voting rights bills.
“I really believe the states should be allowed to do what they want to do. I don’t like the idea of federalizing elections in Georgia,” Raffensperger told the Washington Examiner. “Elections should be state-led. That’s the constitutional way, so I would really encourage that more than anything else, and so let the states do that. But you come up with recommendations, at least then it shows you a guide path, and it’s really a bipartisan guide path. We want everyone to understand that we’re going to have fair and honest elections like we have down here in Georgia. It’s never been easier to vote, but we have appropriate guardrails, so it’s very difficult to commit voter fraud.”
Kemp, meanwhile, called Biden’s recent voting rights speech in Atlanta “ground zero for the Biden-Harris assault on election integrity.”
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“While Joe Biden spends this afternoon parroting the talking points written for him by Stacey Abrams and her far-left allies, I will continue fighting for the truth and secure elections in Georgia,” he continued. “Senate Bill 202, the Election Integrity Act, makes it easy to vote and hard to cheat. The bill expands early voting opportunities, secures drop boxes around the clock, reduces long lines at polling places, and implements the same voter ID requirement for absentee ballots that we have had for in-person voting for well over a decade, but Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Stacey Abrams have never let the truth get in the way of forcing their radical agenda on Georgians and Americans.”
