Georgia Democrats helped propel Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to victory in the Republican primary over his opponent who had the support of former President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press found that over 37,000 people who voted in the 2020 Democratic primary voted in this year’s Republican primary. Raffensperger, who faced a challenge from Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., avoided a runoff election by roughly 27,000 votes.
Debbie Dooley, the president of the Atlanta Tea Party who led an unsuccessful petition to block non-Republicans from voting in the state’s GOP primaries, told the AP: “I did not realize just how heavily the Democrats were going to cross over.”
A campaign official for Raffensperger credited Republicans, particularly those who didn’t vote in previous primaries, for helping the secretary win.
“It is clear that Brad Raffensperger carried a majority of the Republican vote here in the state of Georgia and that there are people who stopped voting in Republican primaries after 2016 who are now reengaged,” said campaign consultant Jordan Fuchs.
Raffensperger himself told the Boston Globe: "I never tried to court Democrats. I just go out there and state the facts. Many of the people that may have voted Democrat in the past are really lost Republicans. In other words, they left us because the message that they were hearing wasn’t attractive to them anymore. We have to make sure that we will always have a coalition, like Reagan did. I believe I’m showing people the model of how you grow your party back."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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