Georgia rebukes Trump over ‘Big Lie’ fraud claim
WASHINGTON: Republican voters delivered a stark repudiation on Tuesday of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 US election was stolen, backing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for reelection by a huge margin over a candidate recruited by the former president.
Mr Trump had banked much of his own political capital hand-picking David Perdue to oust Mr Kemp in the nominating contest to compete for the governor’s mansion in November’s midterm elections.
Mr Perdue made Mr Trump’s bogus claims about 2020 a centrepiece of his campaign, in a direct appeal to his endorser’s supporters who continue wrongly to question the validity of the outcome.
But the former senator was forced to concede, in an embarrassing blow for Mr Trump, as the early count showed him trailing by almost 50 points less than 90 minutes after polls closed.
Mr Kemp, frequently the target of Mr Trump’s wrath for refusing to help overturn the election, was always expected to win, but the margin of defeat represents a stinging rebuke of Mr Trump from a state he lost by the narrowest of margins in 2020.
Five states were holding nominating contests for congressional elections that will decide which party controls the US Senate and House of Representatives for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s first term.
But all eyes were on Georgia, where wounds from the 2020 presidential election are still festering two years after Mr Biden won the state by under 12,000 votes.
Up and down the ballot, the Republican side of the Georgia primary pitted candidates peddling the former president’s election fraud claims against hopefuls who pushed back in defence of the constitution.
The race to be Georgia’s secretary of state is seen as equally consequential as the contest for governor, as these are the officials who oversee elections in the United States.
Democrats fear that, across the country, Mr Trump will be able to install loyalists who can weaponise specious fraud accusations from 2020 to make it harder for his opponents to vote in 2024.
As the man responsible for certifying Georgia’s 2020 election results, Brad Raffensperger was in lockstep with Mr Kemp in pushing back against Mr Trump, making him another key target for the former president’s vengeance.
He defeated Jody Hice, one of more than a dozen Trump-backed candidates across America bidding to become secretary of state and professing to believe the 2020 election was stolen.