(JustPatriots.com)- Elections for state Secretary of State aren’t normally the most contentious. But, that could be much different next election cycle in Georgia.
This week, a prominent Democrat threw her hat into the ring for the upcoming election against incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger. Bee Nguyen, a state Representative in Georgia, has announced that she will run against Raffensperger for the next election.
Nguyen announced that she was running for Secretary of State in a video. In it, she promised to fight efforts in the state to curtail voting rights. She also accused the state GOP of trying to restrict people’s right to vote after Democrats won many of the key races in Georgia in the 2020 election cycle.
In her campaign announcement video, Nguyen said:
“Republicans have done everything in their power to silence the voices of voters who chose an America that works for all of us and not just some of us. But we will not allow anyone to stand in the way of our right to a fair and free democracy.”
Raffensperger has been under fire since the 2020 presidential election. Georgia was a hotly-contested state between former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. Trump and his Republican allies were pushing for the Secretary of State and other officials in Georgia to investigate claims of voter fraud.
However, after a few recounts, Raffensperger ended up certifying the results of the presidential election, to the dismay of Trump and his supporters. That led to Trump saying that Raffensperger needed to be replaced in his position, since he wasn’t representing the Republican Party properly.
Since that time, Trump has thrown his support behind another Republican who is running for the position — state Representative Jody Hice. Hice announced her candidacy not too long ago, and she’ll challenge the incumbent in the Republican primary.
With the events following the election, though, Raffensperger will face a tough challenge even if he is able to emerge victorious in the Republican primary.
Democrats have been calling for change in leadership at the state level in Georgia for a while now. Liberals were able to hand Georgia over to Biden in the presidential election, and they also were victorious in both congressional run-off elections that ultimately led to Democrats holding the majority in the U.S. Senate.
Liberals have been fighting against Georgia’s new voting security laws, saying they are basically Jim Crow-like laws that suppress the voting rights of Black voters and others in the state.
Raffensperger played no role in crafting that bill, but he has since defended various aspects of it. He has supported the new requirement that all voters have to provide a state-issued ID to request and submit absentee ballots.
His support for the bill will play well for him in the Republican primary, but it will be held against him most likely in a General Election against whoever the Democratic challenger may be.
If Nguyen were to win election for Georgia’s Secretary of State, she would become the first Asian-American to be elected to a statewide office in the history of Georgia.
