Former President Donald Trump endorsed a hard-right primary challenge against Georgia’s Republican secretary of state on Monday, taking the most deliberate step yet in his push to punish local officials who refused to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump announced his support for ousting Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger mere minutes after Georgia Rep. Jody Hice launched his 2022 primary campaign for the state’s top election post.
“Wow, just heard the good news,” Trump said in a statement released by his new super PAC. “Jody has been a steadfast fighter for conservative Georgia values and is a staunch ally of the America First agenda. Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity.”
Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican who voted for and donated to Trump, drew the former president’s ire after rebuffing his repeated demands for help to subvert Joe Biden’s election victory in the state last year.
In an especially damning Jan. 2 phone call, recordings of which were leaked to the media, Trump asked Raffensperger to help him “find” enough votes to flip Biden’s win.
Raffensperger has since authorized his office to investigate that call, and the district attorney for Georgia’s Fulton County is criminally probing Trump over the matter.
But Trump — who has never admitted that he lost the 2020 election fair and square — didn’t touch on those thorny topics in his Hice endorsement and instead reiterated the false claim that Biden’s victory was facilitated by fraud and cheating.
“I have 100% confidence in Jody to fight for Free, Fair, and Secure Elections in Georgia, in line with our beloved U.S. Constitution. Jody will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!” Trump said.
Hice, who was among a few dozen House Republicans who attempted to invalidate Biden’s election when Congress reconvened in the immediate aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, offered a similar sentiment in his campaign announcement.
“If elected, I will instill confidence in our election process by upholding the Georgia Constitution, enforcing meaningful reform and aggressively pursuing those who commit voter fraud,” Hice said.
There is no evidence that widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election, and members of Trump’s own Cabinet, including former Attorney General William Barr, concluded Biden’s win was irrefutable.
Raffensperger, whose family fielded death threats because of Trump’s false fraud fretting, slammed Hice in response to his campaign launch, saying “few have done more to cynically undermine faith in our election system” than the Trump-boosting congressman.
“His recklessness is matched by his fecklessness as a congressman,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “Georgia Republicans seeking a candidate who’s accomplished nothing on election reform or anything else, now have one.”
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