On the phone with Raffensperger, Trump said that submitting shredded and unsigned ballots would be "more illegal for you than it is is for [the people doing so], because you know what they did and you're not reporting it.". "Because I knew that we had followed the law, we had followed the Constitution, and I think sometimes moments require you to stand up and just take the shots. ATLANTA (AP) Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was a top target of former President Donald Trump, has won the Republican primary as he seeks reelection. Secretary Raffensperger never wavered after the 2020 elections and Georgia voters showed that standing for what is right still matters, Brendan Buck, an AKCF board member who was a top aide in former House Speaker Paul Ryans office, said in a statement. Raffensperger also testified about how as part of the pressure campaign following the election, Trump called him to find 11,780 votes to swing the election in his favor. The now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Raffensperger to "find" roughly 12,000 votes to overturn the state's election result was key to those efforts: During Raffensperger's testimony, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) played portions of the call in which Trump warned Raffensperger that it was "very dangerous" to dispute the president's claims of fraud. He is being primaried by Jody Hice, who is somebody who has been an election truther., The umbrella organization that RAP belongs to has pledged a $50 million campaign toback Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and a sister organization of RAP previously ran ads defending Raffenspergers handling of an election, saying he ran a textbook election under extraordinary circumstances., But the issue will likely play out across the country, Longwell said. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. of State issued letter refuting fraud claims ahead of electoral vote count", "House Republicans rush to Trump's defense over Georgia call as Democrats prep censure resolution", H. Res. All Rights Reserved. Raffensperger attributed his victory across the state to that travel schedule that brought him in front of county parties and civic groups whose members were once furious with him, as well as less politically tuned-in voters that he needed to activate. "[33] Raffensperger added, "If I was Senator Perdue, I'd be irritated I was in a runoff. We saw in January what Georgia voters will do to candidates who use that rhetoric, he said in a statement shortly after Hice got into the race, alluding to the two GOP Senate runoff losses. 'This is something that was delivered to our home yesterday.'. All registered. He also spent a considerable amount of time talking to the media, especially the conservative press. Raffensperger . Raffensperger earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University. His passing was miserable, and the family received many condolence messages. We ran down the rabbit trail to make sure our numbers were accurate.. Kayleigh McEnany Is Married To MLB Player Sean Gilmartin, Top 10 Highest Paid Female Model In The World, Teams That Won The Stanley Cup In The Last 10 Years. Brad Raffensperger, well-known as the GA Secretary of State who affirmed the GA vote for Biden, lost his son Brent in 2018.https://t.co/7qbaSpfxs7 Dr. Susan Key (@susankey_key) January 10, 2022, Sadly, Brenton Raffensperger's sentence to put a coffin in his living room didn't prevent his death. By 'It's in memory of my son Brenton J. Raffensperger, who . In a statement, the chair of the Fulton County Republican Party, Trey Kelly, said he was unaware of any letter from Raffensperger, adding that, like many others who did not attend Saturday, he was not added to the delegate or alternate list for the county convention. A person close to Raffensperger also denied that he sent a letter seeking election. "This is not acceptable behavior to threaten the wives, the children, the family of . Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger opened his testimony before the Jan. 6 Committee on June 21 by saying he believed the Georgia election went remarkably smooth, while the aftermath was anything but. 2023 Ghanafuo.com & DM Network. 1, or the For the People Act, congressional Democrats sweeping piece of legislation that would drastically remake most aspects of federal elections,penning an op-ed in USA Today on Friday that says the bill makes reckless demands of Georgias elections system.. Raffensperger also put his own money into the race, seeding his campaign with $800,000, according to state campaign finance records. "So there were no additional ballots accepted after 7 p.m.", A transcript of a phone call between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia secretary of state, appears on a video screen during a hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation on Tuesday in Washington. And while Raffenspergers win removes the threat of one of Trumps followers administering a battleground election in 2024, there are still several other states where that remains a possibility. [40] Doug Collins, a Republican congressman from Georgia who lost his race and oversaw Trump's efforts in Georgia, falsely claimed fraud in the Georgia election, prompting Raffensperger, typically known for his mild manner, to call Collins a "liar" and "charlatan" for his rhetoric. [45], A recording of an hour-long phone call between President Donald Trump and Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, was obtained by The Washington Post and released the following day. Press Esc to cancel. what happened to brad raffensperger sonmy boyfriend comes from a wealthy family Raffenspergers nationality was American and his ethnicity is not known. That had to do with total incompetence around what happened in November., Perdue, along with Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), called for Raffenspergers resignation two days after President-elect Joe Biden was widely declared the winner of the presidential contest, accusing the secretary of state of failing to deliver honest and transparent elections.. The former president is obsessed with defeating him next year. Last week alone, a Republican congressman announced hed challenge in the primary and the state legislature voted to strip his office of some official powers. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has become a symbol for discontent within the GOP. When asked why he didnt quit, Raffensperger said he had to be faithful to the constitution.. "[63], Raffensperger fended off his primary challengers, ultimately winning the 50% of the votes needed to avoid a runoff. After Raffensperger wrote a letter asking to be elected, no one at the precinct meeting moved to nominate him, Bragg said. Some seem to be saying that our office should have ignored the wave of absentee voting that was clearly coming. The Georgia GOP secretary of state who bucked Donald Trump is up against serious resistance within his own party. [20], In 2019, Raffensperger fought 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, as she contested his action to remove 300,000 names from the voter registration rolls, and he won the case. Raffensperger told the Washington Post at the time that Graham asked whether he had the power to toss all mail-in ballots in areas that had higher-than-average rates of signature mismatches . They will soon be going to jail," Wood wrote. Later, after Raffensperger had denied the fraud allegations, Trump said he thought it was "dangerous for you to say that.". Shared with POLITICOs Political Mailer Project, We leaned in heavy into a contrast message. Now, allies of Raffensperger argue that he is well positioned to win reelection in November, when Democrats will be running hard for the office. [64], Raffensperger and his wife, Tricia, have three children and two grandchildren. The White House was persistent in trying to reach Raffensperger, with staffers including former chief of staff Mark Meadows calling and texting his office 18 times to try to set up a call with the president. Nevertheless, it was known that Brenton Jay Raffensperger suffered from drug addiction and was even charged with cocaine possession and driving under the influence of drugs. In April 2021, Raffensperger along with GOP Gov. The legislator's misfortune caused his family to go through a trying time. But my job is to make sure we have a fair vote.. And, he said, there's "no physical way" that Trump or anyone could have known who those ballots were for. REUTERS/Tom Brenner. Wee Willie Harris cause of death: How did Wee Willie Harris die? Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger demanded former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) apologize to his wife on Monday after she received death threats following the senator's call for the se Shared with POLITICOs Political Mailer Project, Raffenspergers team said that the travel schedule paid dividends. [17] In the primary, Raffensperger came in first place and Belle Isle came in second place; because no candidate obtained a majority, the race for the Republican nomination went to a primary runoff,[18] which Raffensperger won. hide caption. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/who-is-brad-raffensperger-and-why-is-he-important-to-the-jan-6-hearings. [3] Raffensperger is a member of the North Point Community Church. Perdue, who is running for reelection in one of two Georgia Senate runoff elections Tuesday, responded to Raffenspergers apology request later Monday on. Raffensperger is not without a fan base. The Trump administration claimed in its lawsuits that more than 10,000 dead people voted in Georgia, Raffensperger said adding that neither of those numbers are accurate. 24: Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors, "Draft Donald Trump impeachment article mentions call with Raffensperger", "The Jolt: Brad Raffensperger: 'Yes, I'm running again', "Trump Endorses a Loyalist, Jody Hice, for Georgia Secretary of State", "He became a hero for halting Trump's efforts to overturn the election. "[33], Under pressure from fellow Republicans, Raffensperger ordered a statewide hand recount/audit of all 5 million votes in the Georgia presidential race, in which Biden led Trump by approximately 14,000 votes. He resisted the tension of the outgoing president and made sure that the current president's arguments were based on fabrications. They are furious over his support for SB 202, the controversial election law passed last year that made it more onerous to vote by mail and makes it possible for the state election board to remove local officials, among other provisions that are meant to alleviate longer lines in frequent problem areas. Even assuming that the vast majority of those voters backed Raffensperger, it would have not been nearly enough to propel Raffensperger to victory but it could have been the boost he needed to get to the majority mark to avoid a runoff. A mailer from the group obtained by POLITICO prominently featured Democrats, saying Raffensperger is fighting back against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and their far-left agenda, a message repeated in TV ads. The law also gives the state election board the ability to suspend county election officials, who are replaced by an individual picked by the board. Not everyone in state political circles is convinced Raffenspergers political plight is so grim. ", Schiff asked whether there was any way that Raffensperger could have lawfully changed the result of the vote in Georgia by explaining it as a "recalculation. Trump refused to accept defeat, made false claims of fraud, and launched an unsuccessful protracted campaign to overturn the election results. The state executive committee publicly called this week on Raffensperger to repudiate his staff formisquoting Trumps words in a December phone call in which Trump urged a Georgia elections official to find dishonesty in the vote in an attempt to reverse the election results. [8][9], Raffensperger subsequently won his bid to the Georgia House in 2015, succeeding Lynne Riley. Trump told Raffensperger that "they dropped a lot of votes in there late at night.". Raffensperger said the postcards were all sent by New Georgia Project, a nonprofit that claims to derive its voter information from the states official voter lists. G eorgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he and his wife took a "several-month break" from having their grandchildren visit as people anonymously sent them multiple death threats amid his feud with former President Donald Trump over the 2020 election.. Raffensperger, a Republican, spoke out on Friday about his family's experience dealing with months of threats, such as one . Former President Donald Trump famously pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to overturn the state's presidential election result in a January 2021 phone call that lasted more than an hour. Also Read:Former White House Sec. Perdue will face Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in Tuesdays runoff race, while Loeffler will go up against the Rev. Carolyn Bryant cause of death: How did Carolyn Bryant die? The tablets had caused long lines at polling places. Its whether a Republican who rejects the lie that the last election was stolen has any chance of winning another one. Performance & security by Cloudflare. The group, which also supports members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump, said the Raffensperger race was its biggest investment so far. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger grabs champagne to toast with his wife Tricia after declaring victory May 24, 2022. Abhigya Pandey The article of impeachment adopted by the House notes the Raffensperger call, stating: "President Trump's conduct on January 6, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election. If either Republican wins reelection, the GOP will retain control, but if both Democrats win, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris becoming the tie-breaking vote. Type above and press Enter to search. The previous Georgia House of Representatives has been eager to discredit the fabricated votes in the Georgia region ever since. Schiff pointed to a tweet from pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood from a few weeks before the phone call, saying that Trump gave Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics the death threats from others were not related to his call for the secretary of state to step down. Thats a fair and transparent accounting of what happened in November.. "They refused. READ MORE: Who are the witnesses testifying at the Jan. 6 hearings? "[15], In the November 6, 2018, general election, Raffensperger finished with the most votes, leading Democrat John Barrow by less than one percent. Raffensperger refused to do this, and claimed that the outgoing president's claims were based on falsehoods. [33][34] Raffensperger rejected the calls for his resignation, saying, "As a Republican, I am concerned about Republicans keeping the U.S. Senate. So if I was a Democrat, they better start being creative to figure out talking points other than track records.. AKCF also says it spent a smaller amount in the recent Idaho secretary of state race to boost Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane, a local election official who accepted the results of the 2020 election. Brad Raffensperger: Well, I wanted the President to understand, I want my Republican friends to understand, that what happened in Georgia is that 28,000 Georgians skipped the presidential race . Brenton Raffensperger, Brad Raffensperger's son, passed away at age 38 in 2018 due to a fentanyl shortage. Trump has endorsed election conspiracy theorists in Arizona and Michigan, backing state Rep. Mark Finchem and Kristina Karamo, respectively. MacCallum responded by saying that it feels like this is very much about a grudge between the Georgia secretary of state and the senator. The mainstream media and Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, are utterly disgraceful, dishonest, and manipulative people. On November 20, Raffensperger certified the final vote totals, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued the formal certification of the state's slate of electors. [38] Raffensperger said that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham pressured him in a call to throw out postal ballots favoring Biden. His sons widows home was broken into. When is Meat Loaf funeral? Who is Gabriel Sterling and why is he important to the Jan. 6 hearings? You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Trump suggested Raffensperger could be subject to criminal liability for his role in the matter. Michael Reynolds/Getty Images He defeated three challengers, including U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who was Georgia, Texas, North and! Perdue, who is running for reelection in one of two Georgia Senate runoff elections Tuesday, responded to Raffenspergers apology request later Monday on Fox Newss Special Report,telling host Bret Baier thatthe death threats from others were not related to his call for the secretary of state to step down. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. That was an accurate count that had been certified, Raffensperger said. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Yet after refusing to buckle to Donald Trumps requests to change the states vote count and feuding with Trump over the former presidents baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, Raffenspergers reelection campaign is unfolding, improbably, as one of the most consequential of the election cycle with implications for the GOP in every state and at all levels of government. [22] The number of Latinos eligible to vote in Georgia has expanded and turnout percentage has increased since 2016, exceeding countrywide participation rates of that ethnicity said Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO's executive director. At the time, he was married to his longtime love, currently residing in Washington. Trump sought to change the election result. He went on to call it a criminal offense and a big risk. ", "Carl Bernstein Says Latest Trump Tapes Are 'Far Worse' Than Watergate", "Trump 'just plain wrong' on fraud claims: Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger", "Georgia elections chief refutes election claims in letter to Congress", Letter to Congress from Secretary Raffensperge, "Georgia Sec. Notably, Trump had already been told repeatedly by top Justice Department officials that his claims about widespread voter fraud in Georgia the claims he would go on to make in the 67-minute phone call with Raffensperger were completely false. The group poured $1.4 million on advertising and mailers into Georgia to boost Raffensperger among a chunk of undecided primary voters, according to a memo from the group shared first with POLITICO. "Brad Raffensperger did absolutely the right thing during 2020. And that's what I swore an oath to do. Many digital inhabitants kept their family and spouse in mind for their desires in the future. We plan for the death of you and your family every day, someone said in a message to Tricia Raffensperger. POLITICOs Ximena Bustillo breaks down the century of discrimination that led to that decline. On the call Trump pressed Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes". The age difference between Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra is 13 years. His father rarely discussed his personal life in conversation. [27] The voting rights groups sued Raffensperger in federal court; they obtained an order from a district judge ordering Georgia election officials to prepare such paper backups, but this order was blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In recent weeks, Raffensperger has released statements warning against efforts to register people who are ineligible to vote in the Senate runoffs or to encourage people to come to Georgia simply to vote. Raffensperger was reelected in the 2022 Georgia Secretary of State election, after defeating Trump-backed Jody Hice in the Republican primary and Democratic challenger Bee Nguyen in the general election. Its outrageous that anybody made a death threat, but that had nothing to do with my call for his resignation, Perdue said. What I believed in my heart of hearts is that they were not seeing what I was seeing, Raffensperger said. There were zero. Kayleigh McEnany Is Married To MLB Player Sean Gilmartin. Either way, as the GOP forges its post-Trump era identity, Raffenspergers reelection campaign is emerging as one of the earliest and most contentious test cases for the direction of the party. At the time that Raffensperger wrote his letter to Congress on Jan. 6, the state had found evidence of just two dead people having voted. There is no information online on Brad's child's memorial, funeral procedure, or appearance. [3], Raffensperger is the CEO of Tendon Systems, LLC, a contracting and engineering firm that operates in Columbus, Georgia, and Forsyth County, Georgia. Perdue, along with Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), two days after President-elect Joe Biden was widely declared the winner of the presidential contest, accusing the secretary of state of failing to deliver honest and transparent elections., Raffenspergers request for an apology comes after the Post released audio on Sunday of a phone call between him and the president over the weekend, in which Trump repeatedly requests the secretary of state to. We found there is zeroThey said there were 2,000 non registered voters. Performance & security by Cloudflare. 46.175.224.27 A conservative one. ", "What I knew is that we didn't have any votes to find," Raffensperger said. When Raffensperger told Trump on the call that his investigators hadn't found proof supporting his claims, the former president said "they're either dishonest or incompetent. Raffensperger beat three challengers, including Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who had criticized his handling of the 2020 election. The national primary environment appears more favorable to Republicans running on the idea that the election was illegitimate, witha majority of Republican voters saying the November election wasnt free or fair. [15] During his campaign, Raffensperger "said he would reduce government bureaucracy, support voter ID laws and push for verifiable paper ballots when Georgia replaces its electronic voting machines. Its in memory of my son Brenton J. Raffensperger, who died two years ago, Raffensperger said at a press conference on Wednesday. Are Sofia Richie and Nicole Richie biological sisters? Closer to home, Raffensperger failed this past weekend to get Republicans in his own precinct to elect him as a delegate to his countys upcoming Republican Party convention, said Stewart Bragg, executive director of the Georgia Republican Party. [46][47] On the call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to change the election results for the state of Georgia to make him the winner; Trump told Raffensperger, "I just want to find 11,780 votes." The Georgia secretary of state has insisted on multiple occasions that as a Republican, he wanted Trump to win, but he lost in a fair election. She is responsible for tracing foundations to do charity and cr What is the age difference between Hugh Jackman and his wife? Despite the evidence to the contrary, Trump repeated claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia during his public address on Jan. 6, putting Raffensperger and his family in even more danger. "[25] After encountering opposition, the proposed ban died in the Georgia General Assembly. [57] On January 6, 2021, days after the call, a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol while the Congress was counting the electoral votes to formalize Biden's victory. But he hasnt done that.. [26] During the 2020 Georgia elections, Raffensperger sought to prevent Georgia polling places from printing paper backups of voter registration and absentee voting information in case polling places would struggle to use voter check-in tablets, called Poll Pads, which had been problematic in Georgia's primary elections in June 2020. Brad Raffensperger, a well-known American politician, financier, and structural designer, is the father of Brenton Raffensperger. Left: ", "Raffensperger, Georgia secretary of state who drew Trump's ire, wins reelection", "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election", "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election Runoff", "December 4, 2018 General Election Runoff", "General Primary/Special Election - Official & Complete Results", "Fact Check: Brad Raffensperger's Brother Is Not A Chinese Tech Executive Named Ron", "Is Brad Raffenspeger the Brother of a Huawei Executive? There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. An early analysis from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that 7 percent of voters in this years Republican primary cast a ballot in the Democratic primary in 2020. It would make sense as to why somebody would think that.
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