Georgia GOP chair says party won’t block Raffensperger bid for higher office

Fresh off his reelection as Georgia GOP chair, Josh McKoon said he would not block Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from the ballot if he chooses to run in 2026.

“I’m not going to put the Republican Party in the position of being sued over ballot access,” McKoon said on Tuesday’s edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Politically Georgia” podcast.

Over the weekend at the Georgia GOP convention in Dalton, delegates approved a resolution calling on party officials to block Raffensperger from qualifying on the Republican ticket.

“Obviously, the delegates expressed their sense and what their desire is, and they have every right to,” said McKoon. “But I have a fiduciary responsibility to the Georgia Republican Party, and we’re not going to engage in those kinds of things.”

Activists within the GOP are still angry at Raffensperger over refusing Donald Trump’s demand to “find” 12,000 votes in Georgia following Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

The refusal caused a rift between Raffensperger and the staunch Trump loyalists within the Georgia Republican Party.

McKoon also spoke about the upcoming 2026 races following U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments about a possible bid for governor.

In other 2026 news, Derek Dooley, son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is mulling a run for Senate.

“We’ve seen a template for that kind of candidacy before with (Sen.) Tommy Tuberville in Alabama,” said McKoon. “People like football legends.”

McKoon said Dooley has friends who “have a very extensive political network.”

Derek Dooley (Courtesy photo)

“But I do not see at this point a sort of knockout (that’s) going to clear the field the way that I believe Gov. (Brian) Kemp’s candidacy would have done.”