Republican Who Defied Trump Announces Bid for Governor

Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has thrown his hat in the ring for governor.

Raffensperger garnered national attention in 2021 when he refused to “find” Donald Trump enough votes to throw Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. Five years on, Raffensperger’s candidacy will prove a political litmus test for conservative appetites in the South, and whether or not they’re willing to veer away from MAGA’s clutches.

“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 will join an already crowded Republican primary for Georgia’s top position. His challengers include Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones—a Trump loyalist who has already received the president’s endorsement—and state Attorney General Chris Carr, who has similarly embraced the president’s politics in an effort to curry favor with his supporters.

But no one else on the ticket will likely draw MAGA eyes like Raffensperger, who half a decade later is still mired in the political turmoil of standing up to the movement’s figurehead.

In campaign videos, Raffensperger frames himself as a tough-on-liberals Republican who fought “and won” against the likes of former state Representative Stacey Abrams and former President Joe Biden, upholding traditional party ideals such as lowering taxes while focusing on the production of “good paying jobs.”

Raffensperger didn’t shy away from participating in the conservative culture war, either. In the same video, the secretary of state promised to deliver a “bold conservative agenda” as Georgia’s next governor. That plan, though vague, partly focused on putting parents “in charge” of their kids’ education, as well as banning transgender surgery for minors.

Brad Raffensperger launches campaign for Governor of GA ???? pic.twitter.com/K5ZQS2dgFJ

— Georgia Democrat (@GADemocrat_) September 17, 2025

How seriously Georgia is affected by transgender surgeries is unclear, though a study by UCLA found that just 3.3 percent of American youths across the country identify as transgender or gender nonconforming.

Raffensperger is now the second gubernatorial hopeful to have openly defied Trump. Georgia’s former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan announced Wednesday that he is running for governor—as a newly minted Democrat.