Tunde Sulaiman 
FILE – Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State who rejected Donald Trump’s call to help overturn the state’s 2020 election results, said yesterday that he’s running for governor in 2026.
The wealthy engineering entrepreneur might appeal most to business-oriented Republicans who once dominated GOP primaries in Georgia, but he is pledging a strongly conservative campaign even while he remains scorned by Trump and his allies.
Raffensperger’s entry into the field intensifies the primary in a state with an unbroken line of Republican governors since 2002, reports The Associated Press. “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 said in an announcement video.
Raffensperger defied Trump’s wrath to win reelection in 2022, but he will again test GOP primary voters’ tolerance for a candidate so clearly targeted by the president.
