Trump has endorsed a slate of candidates for election offices who parrot his falsehoods about the 2020 election being stolen and Raffensperger, who refused Trumps entreaties to find more votes in 2020, just defeated the first one. 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. Some seem to be saying that our office should have ignored the wave of absentee voting that was clearly coming. Not everyone in state political circles is convinced Raffenspergers political plight is so grim. I wish you were dead, the message read. "[43][44], In March 2021, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a bill, which was signed into law by Kemp, that removed the position of state election board chair from the Georgia Secretary of State's duties. And hes been rewarded by winning a Republican primary, said Georgia Lt. Gov. While Democrats credit Raffensperger for doing the right thing in 2020, they have indicated they will run hard against him this year. 69.163.163.196 How did Brad Raffensperger happen to come across evidence of voter fraud taking place at Stacey Abrams' New Georgia Project? Raffensperger is not just somebody running in a Republican primary, said Sarah Longwell, the founder of the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump group working to promote non-MAGA Republicans. Hes toast, said Jay Williams, a Georgia-based Republican strategist. "But just a total of four, not 10,000, not 5,000. Bradford Jay Raffensperger (born May 18, 1955)[1][2] is an American politician, businessman, and civil engineer, serving as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. Thank you. the death threats from others were not related to his call for the secretary of state to step down. Bradford Jay Raffensperger (born May 18, 1955) is an American politician, businessman, and civil engineer, serving as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. Additionally, Brad claimed that letting go of personal resentment had aided him in his profession, particularly after Donald Trump had persuaded him to alter the Georgia vote count in Trump's favor. 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. [31] Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden became president-elect, defeating incumbent Donald Trump, and Democrats made gains in Georgia, with Biden winning the state, the first time since 1992 that a Democratic presidential nominee had won Georgia. Georgia Republicans seeking a candidate whos accomplished nothing now have one.. For more on the key players in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, click here. The comedian often celebrates Christmas and New Year's Eve with his household members. To participate and help bring more transparency to elections, both censured by the local county parties, according to state campaign finance records, early analysis from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among the top battlegrounds for election administration offices. Brenton Raffensperger is the late son of Bradford Jay Raffensperger, an American politician, businessman, and civil engineer, serving as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Brian Kemp, thatremoves the secretary of state as the state election board chair to be replaced by a person approved by the state legislature. [33][34] Perdue and Loeffler offered no evidence in support of their claims, which they made after pressure from Trump, who had promoted conspiracy theories about the election and falsely claimed it was rigged. Raffensperger was censured at the Georgia GOP convention on Saturday for a "dereliction of his constitutional duty" over the presidential election. Brenton Raffensperger, Brad Raffensperger's son, passed away at age 38 in 2018 due to a fentanyl shortage. ", "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. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger demanded former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) apologize to his wife on Monday aftershe received death threats following the senators call for the secretarys resignation in November. Brian Kemp "every chance to get it right.". Its in memory of my son Brenton J. Raffensperger, who died two years ago, Raffensperger said at a press conference on Wednesday. Am I disappointed in the results? Will voters now punish him? 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. The death of Brenton Jay Raffensperger was a big blow to his family and loved ones and the family received a number of condolence messages concerning his death. Brad has spoken about his son's death and explained that his late son struggled with among other things addiction and a cancer diagnosis. Press Esc to cancel. WATCH: Former Judge Michael Luttig says theres still clear, present danger during Jan. 6 hearing. The previous Georgia House of Representatives has been eager to discredit the fabricated votes in the Georgia region ever since. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger listens to Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers as he testifies during the fourth of eight planned public hearings of the U.S. House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. June 21, 2022. Raffensperger, a mild-mannered engineer by training, refused to go along with the president's request, but saw it as a threat, he writes in his new book Integrity Counts. 'This is something that was delivered to our home yesterday.'. There were zero. On January 2, 2021, Donald Trump allegedly made a recorded telephone decision to persuade Brad to shift the Georgia vote to support himself. Altogether, it added up to the biggest GOP rebuke of Trump since the day 10 House Republicans voted to impeach him. He also spent a considerable amount of time talking to the media, especially the conservative press. [33][34][35] State elections officials and other Republican leaders noted that there was no evidence of wrongdoing in connection with the election. Shared with POLITICOs Political Mailer Project, We leaned in heavy into a contrast message. But he is running up against the heavy weight of GOPs election fraud orthodoxy. We ran down the rabbit trail to make sure our numbers were accurate.. "The numbers are the numbers, the numbers don't lie.". "[63], Raffensperger fended off his primary challengers, ultimately winning the 50% of the votes needed to avoid a runoff. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Brad spoke about his son's death and explained that his late son struggled with among other things addiction and a cancer diagnosis. In any event, we assume his family fulfilled all the requirements to . [3] Raffensperger is a member of the North Point Community Church. for himto declared the winner, one vote more than Biden received in the state. They subsequently found two more. He always makes time for his Former White House Sec. Robin is an actress and writer known for the Emmy-nominated series from HBO named A African Lady Sketch Sho Alex Aiono parents are Martin Aiono and Heather Lee Aiono. 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. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/who-is-brad-raffensperger-and-why-is-he-important-to-the-jan-6-hearings. 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. What I knew is we did not have any votes to find. [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." [30], The November 2020 general election in Georgia went smoothly, avoiding the problems that had plagued the primary election in June; Raffensperger credited the successful process to the record numbers of voters who cast ballots before Election Day, either by mail or during Georgia's three-week period of in-person early voting. Alex Aiono has a family of five including three siblings Hallie, Sidney Lee Lewis, and Taylor. The races will determine which party has control of the Senate. She was raised with her two sisters. I was talking to Rotarys, Kiwanis, business chambers, the Tea Party groups, Raffensperger said. They investigated claims of 2,056 felons voting, and identified less than 74. At the time, he was married to his longtime love, currently residing in Washington. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler issued a joint statement accusing Raffensperger of unspecified "failures" and calling for him to resign. 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. At the same time, Raffensperger has been harshly critical of the falsehoods about the 2020 election promoted by Trump and embraced by Hice, saying voters will punish Hice because of it. READ MORE: Who are the witnesses testifying at the Jan. 6 hearings? But . The law, in effect, hands control of the five-person board over to the state legislature: Two other members on the board are picked by the respective legislative chambers. And as Raffensperger celebrates his victory, some of Raffenspergers allies are incredulously mocking Hices campaign, too. 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. "[51] Journalist Carl Bernstein, who in 1972 broke the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, called the TrumpRaffensperger scandal "far worse than Watergate" and said that in any other presidency it would result in impeachment, conviction, and bipartisan demands for the president's resignation. [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. 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. On the call Trump pressed Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes". She is responsible for tracing foundations to do charity and cr What is the age difference between Hugh Jackman and his wife? This is something that was delivered to our home yesterday. We received three of these from the same source. [28], Raffensperger did not send out mail-in ballot applications to every active registered voter in Georgia for the November 2020 general election, citing the cost of a mass mailing. 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 . Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling testify during a hearing held by the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack 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. President Donald Trump refused to recognize defeat and falsely accused his competitor, Joe Biden, of extortion after Biden won the electoral contest and the region of Georgia. People broke into the home of his daughter-in-law, a widow with two children. 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. He drew 52 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. Trump went on to repeat those claims in his Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse. [24][25] Later, Raffensperger further postponed the Georgia primaries to June 9 due to the coronavirus crisis. Disputes regarding purging of voter rolls and Latino voter access, Trump's efforts to change the election results, refused to accept defeat, made false claims of fraud, Electronic Registration Information Center, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, certification of the state's slate of electors, Congress was counting the electoral votes, United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, "Raffensperger To Run For Georgia Secretary of State", "Millionaire candidates stud Georgia's ballot", "As Tensions Among Republicans Mount, Georgia's Recount Proceeds Smoothly", "Brad Raffensperger's Biography - The Voter's Self Defense System", "Raffensperger Wins City Council Seat in Runoff", "Brad Raffensperger focuses on business growth, voting in Secretary of State race", "Ga. stops Fulton Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand's fee on liens", "Milton County legislation on the table again", "Engineer has eyes on secretary of State", "Georgia Election 2018: Raffensperger wins GOP secretary of state race", "Hearing set on county decision to ditch new voting machines", "Forum features state school superintendent, secretary of state hopefuls", "Georgia GOP secretary of state hopefuls head for runoff", "Two Georgia down-ballot races appear headed to runoffs", "Republican Brad Raffensperger wins Georgia secretary of state runoff", "Georgia removes 100,000 names from voter registration rolls", "Judge dismisses request to send Spanish ballot applications", "Latino voters in Georgia get attention in high-stakes Senate races", "Georgia to mail absentee ballot applications to all voters", "Georgia measure would stop officials mailing ballot requests", "Georgia primary delayed again to June 9 during coronavirus emergency", "Appeals court stops more paper backups of Georgia voter records", "Ban on mailing absentee ballot forms dies at Georgia Legislature", "Georgia board approves online absentee ballot request portal", "Georgia's secretary of state encourages early voting ahead of record election turnout", "Despite a few hiccups, voting in Georgia goes smoothly", "Georgia officials certify election results showing Biden win", "Loeffler, Perdue call on Georgia's Republican secretary of state to resign", "Citing no evidence, Georgia's U.S. senators demand elections head resign", "Georgia Will Begin Recounting Votes, With Biden Still Favored", "Masked workers start presidential hand tally in Georgia", "Georgia launches statewide hand recount of presidential race", "Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude ballots", "Lindsey Graham on the defensive over calls to state election officials", "Georgia's recount integrity faces attack", "2nd Georgia election official says he's getting death threats", "Trump inciting violence, warns Georgia election official", "Trump asks Georgia election officials to 'find' votes during call with Sec. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. However, in 2020 Brad was forced to talk about his child since a support group had given letters of citizen enrollment for his child, who had long since passed away. There was a very significant endorsement backing our opponent. What I believed in my heart of hearts is that they were not seeing what I was seeing, Raffensperger said. 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 . The government official's significant other and his late child's widow both received physically upsetting texts from Trump allies, according to public stories. Brad Raffensperger, a well-known American politician, financier, and structural designer, is the father of Brenton Raffensperger. But Nguyen viewed as a rising star among Georgia Democrats will be the heavy favorite to secure the nomination in June. They investigated claims of 2,423 unregistered voters, and found zero. The age difference between Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra is 13 years. Yes, Sofia is the younger sister of Nicole Richie and Miles Richie. And, he said, there's "no physical way" that Trump or anyone could have known who those ballots were for. The proposal that he oversees 11,780 illegitimate votes from former President Trump wasn't wise. He has also interviewed a plethora of sporting personalities. There is no information online on Brad's child's memorial, funeral procedure, or appearance. [24][25] After David Ralston, the Republican speaker of the state House, said that expanded use of mail-in voting would "be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia," Republicans on a Georgia state House committee advanced legislation to block election officials from sending mail-in ballot request forms to voters ahead of elections. Raffenspergercalled for an apology after Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked him to respond to Perdue calling it disgusting tohave aconversation with President Trump recorded, which The Washington Post released Sunday. [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. The legislation ended this self-enrichment practice. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Raffensperger capitalized on that chance Tuesday night, dispatching his Trump-backed challenger, GOP Rep. Jody Hice, with a comeback that took him from being ostracized by the state Republican Party to cleaning up in nearly every corner of the state. Raffensperger refuted that notion, saying he believed Trump was referring to the time at which various counties would upload their results. That was an accurate count that had been certified, Raffensperger said. Denise Ramsey has been married to Bill Whittemore since 2011. Brad talked about using illegal drugs and how it led to the death of his child in one of his speeches. Just days before the crucial Georgia runoffs that will determine control of the US Senate, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered a strong message to Donald Trump as the President . And last night, I was proven right: That people in Georgia arent just good. 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.". He issued further warnings to groups that haverepeatedly and aggressively attempted to register ineligible or deceased voters for the January 5 Senate runoff elections. Former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler won the battle for the second Democratic runoff spot. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger grabs champagne to toast with his wife Tricia after declaring victory May 24, 2022. Here are the main points: 1. Raffensperger spent long hours on the road to talk to basically any group that would have him even when they wanted to relitigate the 2020 vote that Raffensperger has consistently defended as clean and fair. 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. 46.175.224.27 Brad Raffensperger Son . [3], Raffensperger is the CEO of Tendon Systems, LLC, a contracting and engineering firm that operates in Columbus, Georgia, and Forsyth County, Georgia. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. "[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. Those prior efforts included a phone call on January 2, 2021, during which President Trump urged the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to 'find' enough votes to overturn the Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if he failed to do so. But he also talked up other more orthodox Republican election stances. Theyre employees. THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Raffenspergers official responsibilities have also been targeted by Republicans in the state. 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. But that feat is in large part because Raffensperger is admired by Democrats, who viewed him as a truth-telling, elections administration equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci after the November vote. Critics, including the voting rights group Coalition for Good Governance, described Raffensperger's decision to go forward with the hand recount being motivated by the political pressure he had received from Trump, and said it was not contemplated by Georgia law. I used to say, 10 percent, huh? Raffensperger beat three challengers, including Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who had criticized his handling of the 2020 election. I believe that people are good, and people are looking for good people that do the right thing. Tags: News, 2020 Elections, Donald Trump, Georgia, Secretary of State, Election, Original Location: Death threats got so serious that Raffensperger and his wife stopped having grandchildren visit, President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, Death threats got so serious that Raffensperger and his wife stopped having grandchildren visit. [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. Georgia 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. As part of this mission, on January 2, 2021, Trump had a recorded conversation with Brad in which he asked him to modify the Georgia vote count to support him. Some still see a path to reelection, despite the serious resistance within his own party. Raffensperger has been a focal point for Trump and his supporters since shortly after the presidential election. That notwithstanding, what the president did on the phone call is what hes been doing the last eight weeks and what Ive been asking for as well, Perdue said. [25] Raffensperger pushed back on the proposal, saying: "By a wide margin, voters on both sides of the political spectrum agree that sending absentee applications to all active voters was the safest and best thing our office could do to protect our voters at the peak of COVID-19. Brenton's father Brad Raffensperger, CEO at TS Group of Companies ( Source : Bidding for First Republic lasts into the night: A guide to the latest banking Ted Cruz decries political smear job against Clarence Thomas for ethics Facebook agrees to pay $725M settlement: Whats the deadline to file a claim? Raffensperger said that his opponents seemed to be just sitting back, waiting for a runoff, that ultimately will never come. He also led with some important context about what preceded the Jan. 2 call. Now, allies of Raffensperger argue that he is well positioned to win reelection in November, when Democrats will be running hard for the office. And Raffensperger likely received a boost from Democratic voters who crossed over into the GOP primary. [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. When asked why he didnt quit, Raffensperger said he had to be faithful to the constitution.. In a Republican primary like the Ohio Senate primary, for example I suspect the challengers are going to be MAGA, or more MAGA, or mega MAGA. I dont want to say theres zero chance, but at this point right now, its nearly impossible to find anyone in the party who supports the reelection of [Raffensperger], he said. | [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. 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. [13], Raffensperger ran for the Secretary of State of Georgia in the 2018 election. Zach Hunter, the groups executive director, said in an interview that getting to those late undecided Republican voters was key to the groups strategy. I think there was a very quiet majority, on the ground, of voters who understood what happened: that there was an individual who was upset with the election results and they were looking for a scapegoat.. "[58][59], Raffensperger testified in public hearings before the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack on June 21, 2022. He defeated the Democratic Party nominee, Democratic state representative Bee Nguyen, in the November general election. He resisted the tension of the outgoing president and made sure that the current president's arguments were based on fabrications. hide caption. His wife's cell phone was also doxed and both of them got threats and pressure from strangers. ", Trump said: "There's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, you've recalculated even if you cut them in half, cut them in half and cut them in half again, it's more votes than we need. Raffensperger rose to national prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in which incumbent President Donald Trump lost. A political mailer features Brad Raffensperger, Republican incumbent for Georgia secretary of state. 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.. We plan for the death of you and your family every day, someone said in a message to Tricia Raffensperger.
