ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has won the Republican primary in a bid to keep his job.
He defeated three challengers, including U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Raffensperger became a top target for Trump after the secretary of state refused to bow to pressure to take steps to overturn the former president’s narrow loss in Georgia.
Hice had embraced false claims about the 2020 election being stolen and objected to Georgia’s electoral votes being counted for President Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, 11Alive spoke with the Republican candidate about the road ahead, and how he countered those claims about the 2020 election.
"I've been pushing back on these stolen election claims since 2018, when Stacey Abrams lost," the secretary of state told 11Alive the morning after his primary win. "In 2020 we had the flip side of the coin, just different parties. At the end of the day, my job is to follow the law, follow the constitution."
He also added "This election was really about the truth and the truth matters, and the truth won out."
Raffensperger noted that he spend the months between that election and the primaries traveling around the state, meeting with people and explaining to them what actually happened in 2020.
"The bottom line is that 28,000 Georgians skipped the presidential race and yet voted down ballot in other races," he said.
Raffensperger also put emphasis on the Election Integrity Act of 2021, a controversial piece of legislation, which included requiring voter I.D. and limiting absentee ballots, stating that he believes it reignited voter confidence this time around.
He also touched on many of the criticism of the new law, which some have argued limits access to voting for minority groups.
Yet, Raffensperger disagreed with those claims adding "we actually increased the number of days of early voting now up to 17 days. Any county that wanted to could add two days to Sunday, bringing it up to 19 days."
As far as voter I.D. goes, the secretary of state pointed to Minnesota as a blue state with a similar law on the books and claimed Georgia is hardly the only state to adopt such as rule.
"Photo I.D. is an objective measure that restores confidence," Raffensperger told 11Alive. "When you restore confidence, you're going to have bigger turnout." He noted that this most recent election set a record for turnout during a primary.
As of now, there is not winner in the Democratic primary for secretary of state, with that race likely to go to a runoff in a few weeks.
However, Raffensperger is nonetheless looking ahead at what the biggest issues will be on the campaign trail.
He pointed to the lawsuit by Verified Action in federal court as the top issue he wishes to discuss on the campaign trail.
"If we can't do citizenship verification when people go to register, then you'll end up with non-citizens on the rolls," Raffesnperger said, before adding that 80% of Georgians agree with him that only American citizens should be on the voter rolls. "It's a pivotal issue not just for Georgia, but the entire country."