(The Center Square) – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday he is entering the 2026 governor’s race and called himself a “job creator and bold, Christian conservative with a proven track record of doing the right thing.”
His announcement was expected as his office’s chief operating officer, Gabriel Sterling, announced earlier this month he was running for Secretary of State.
Raffensperger made national headlines in 2020 after a phone call with President Donald Trump, in which the president asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” so he could defeat Joe Biden in Georgia’s presidential contest. That call drew criticism from Trump and other Republicans.
Neither the phone call nor Trump was mentioned in Raffensperger’s video announcing his run, but he mentions tussles with former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams and Biden.
“He stood strong and stopped Biden from overturning Georgia’s Election Integrity Law,” the video says. “Now Georgia is the most secure place to vote in America.”
Raffensperger enters a race that includes two of Georgia’s state office holders, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Attorney General Chris Carr.
Jones used his endorsement by Trump to criticize his opponents on Wednesday.
“Chris Carr and Brad Raffensperger have one thing in common: They are both Never Trumpers,” Jones said in the post.
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Raffensperger’s campaign “injects a new level of chaos into what was already a messy primary.”
“With Raffensperger in, Republicans are set to be locked into a vicious primary between three candidates who all have a record of cheering on Donald Trump’s cost-raising, job-killing agenda, opposing Medicaid expansion, and stripping away reproductive freedoms. No matter who wins this primary, the Republican nominee will be badly damaged – and completely out of touch with Georgians,” Donohoe said.
Raffensperger enters a race with a long list of candidates from both parties. In addition to Jones and Carr, Republicans in are Ben Anderson, Clark Dean, Scott Daniel Ellison, Gregg Rodney Kirkpatrick, Billy Gene Minter II, Leland J. Olinger II, Walter Paschal Reeves II, Takosha Mishel Swan and Kenneth Yasger, according to the Georgia Campaign Finance System website.
Former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced his candidacy as a Democrat on Tuesday. Other high-profile Democrats in the race are former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves and state Rep. Derrick Jackson.
Other Democratic candidates are Akhenaten Hotep Amun, Olu Brown, Benjamin Turner and Ocean Zotique.
