Election Results: Brad Raffensperger vs. Jody Hice for Georgia Secretary of State

The election results for the Georgia Republican primary have been released, and Brad Raffensperger defeated Jody Hice for the party’s nomination. In this article, we’ll examine the main issues in this race, and see how Trump’s feud with Kemp and Raffensperger might play out in the 2020 election.

Brad Raffensperger beats Jody Hice in a GOP primary

Brad Raffensperger won the GOP primary election for Georgia Secretary of State in a nail-biting contest on Tuesday. Raffensperger defeated former President Donald Trump-backed Congressman Jody Hice. He also won the endorsements of other prominent Republicans in Georgia.

The Secretary of State race has been a key part of Trump’s bid to win control of the election process. A new voting law passed by Republican lawmakers last year has been a hot topic in the state. It imposes a number of restrictions on casting a ballot.

Raffensperger has been a staunch defender of the state’s elections. His campaign focused on preventing non-citizens from voting. Several of the candidates have tried to spread conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

As the secretary of state, Raffensperger has overseen several hand-recounts. In one case, he supervised a machine recount. But he has defended the election process to the point that he refused to accept the request from the president to find 11,780 votes that could be attributed to voter fraud.

Although Raffensperger won the primary, he will still need to beat out a Democratic challenger in the June 21 runoff. Democrats have several competitive candidates. They include former state rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler, former Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves, and former state rep. Bee Nguyen.

Joe Biden beats Trump in Georgia’s presidential race

The Georgia presidential election was a closely contested affair. But the state’s embrace of Democrat Joe Biden was a dramatic reversal from 2016. In the last two decades, Georgia has backed Republicans in nearly every presidential race. It’s only since 1992 that a Democrat has swept the state.

The state’s demographics changed dramatically. As more and more non-white voters moved into the Atlanta suburbs, the Republican hold over the area has weakened. This allowed Democratic efforts to capture the vote.

While Trump carried the state in 2016, Biden was able to increase his vote share in the metro Atlanta counties. He also received support from suburban voters. Despite the gains, Biden still fell short of the mark.

The margin of victory for Trump in Georgia was five percentage points. His lead was erased during the week, though. With each count, the vote for Biden grew.

A number of factors determined the composition of the 2020 electorate. These included the gender gap and the age difference. There was also a significant amount of voter turnout.

Georgia’s population increased by more than a million people from 9.6 million to 10.6 million. That resulted in a surge in voter turnout. Voter turnout was the highest in more than a century.

Women voted for both candidates. In addition, voters under 30 favored Biden by 24 percentage points. Among men, Trump beat Biden by 11 points.

Trump’s feuds with Kemp and Raffensperger stem from the 2020 election

In a series of public speeches, President Donald Trump has been repeatedly calling Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “disloyal” and claiming widespread fraud in the state’s 2020 election. While the accusations have no basis in fact, their ongoing disagreements are a source of friction between the two politicians.

The feud began when Kemp selected Kelly Loeffler to fill an open Senate seat. Trump questioned the selection, questioning why Kemp brought Loeffler to Washington. He wanted to force the state legislature to choose the electors. But Georgia’s Republican leaders refused to cave to his pressure.

Since then, the relationship between the two has deteriorated. Trump has publicly attacked Kemp as a “coward” and a total disaster. And he has threatened to sue Raffensperger.

Both are running for Senate in runoff elections. Republicans say the results of the election were fair and free, but Democrats point out that the secretary of state races are used as a tool to combat a wave of restrictive voting laws. They also believe that friction between the two will help Stacey Abrams in the fall.

Raffensperger, a Republican, has a history of defending the election process. Last year, he won a GOP primary, narrowly defeating a former U.S. congresswoman, Jody Hice.