Do you remember where you were in the days after the 2020 presidential elections? Anyone involved in the chaotic aftermath in Georgia certainly does.
Now, some of the biggest names from the post-2020 clashes — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Attorney General Chris Carr, and former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan — are all in the race to be Georgia’s next governor.
The GOP primary will feature Jones, who backed President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the Georgia results, against Raffensperger and Carr, who stood against Trump on the other side. Duncan, meanwhile, is running as a Democrat after battling Trump so much following the 2020 aftermath that he eventually switched parties last month.
Credit: Patricia Murphy/AJC
Credit: Patricia Murphy/AJC
Rehashing the 2020 elections was mostly off the table in 2022 when Gov. Brian Kemp ran for reelection. He was being challenged by Trump’s hand-picked primary opponent, former Sen. David Perdue, as a punishment for refusing to help Trump push his false claims of election fraud.
“I’m talking about the future, not the past,” Kemp routinely told reporters at campaign appearances when he was asked about what happened.
Kemp’s approach worked with Georgia voters. He not only defeated Perdue, pulling nearly 74% of the vote, but he also beat Democrat Stacey Abrams with independent and even some Democratic votes because of his battles with Trump.
Carr and Raffensperger both got Trump-backed primary challenges in 2022, too, which they won with 74% and 52% of the vote on primary day. Jones, who was endorsed by Trump, won 51% of the vote in his contest and narrowly avoided a runoff.
Now heading into 2026, the 2020 elections were a main theme for Jones’ allies last month at his campaign kick-off rally in Flovilla.
U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach was one of Jones’ fellow state senators in 2020, when they both pushed for a special legislative session that Trump demanded to reverse his loss in Georgia. Jones did even more, joining an amicus brief to overturn Georgia’s election results and serving as a Trump elector, even after Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner.
“We saw boxes being stuffed. We saw all this, and we got all these complaints,” Beach told the crowd at Jones’ rally. “So we started asking questions, and we wanted a special session. We wanted to get down to the bottom of it, and that’s when I learned (Burt Jones) has backbone and courage.”
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Jones’ role in 2020 was a selling point for Bruce LeVell, a Trump ally, too.
“When it got hot, Burt Jones never wavered,” LeVell said. “If that doesn’t qualify him to govern, I don’t know what else does.”
State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming, said that 2020 proved Jones will stick with Trump in good times and bad. “All these politicians want a ticket on the Trump train now, but they never paid the price,” Dolezal told the crowd. “Let me tell you something. Burt Jones paid the price.”
If Jones was leading the charge for Trump in the 2020 aftermath, Raffensperger was his biggest roadblock. Although he supported Trump in 2020 and 2024, Raffensperger famously refused Trump’s demand to “find” the 11,780 votes he needed to win Georgia.
“Mr. President, your challenge is, your data is wrong,” Raffensperger told Trump on the phone call that was later leaked to the media.
It all made Raffensperger a target of death threats at home but won him acclaim around the country. He later wrote a book about 2020 called “Integrity Counts.”
“I don’t expect history to remember the name Brad Raffensperger,” he wrote. “But I do expect history to remember these times, when a president who lost his election refused to concede.”
Raffensperger launched his campaign for governor this week. Thanks to 2020, he has near-universal name recognition and a crossover appeal that helped him win reelection in 2022. But there is also lingering opposition from some Trump supporters.
Like Raffensperger, Carr got his own phone call from Trump about reversing the Georgia results after 2020, which he declined. Carr eventually defended the state in 16 lawsuits challenging the election results, which the state won. His allies say 2020 showed all of the candidates’ character.
“In 2020 and in 2022, Chris Carr proudly stood by Gov Kemp, Burt Jones did not,” Heath Garrett, a top strategist for Carr. “The governor and Chris Carr received 75% of the vote in the Republican Primary in 2022 because Republicans overwhelmingly endorsed their style of conservative leadership.”
Kendyl Parker, a spokesperson for Jones, said Jones’ role in the 2020 elections shows one thing. “Burt never backs away from fights and sticks with friends.”
While Jones, Raffensperger and Carr have to win over Trump supporters in the GOP primary, Duncan is positioning himself as the Democrat with the best chance of winning in November and stopping Trump in the process.
“It’s an important win for Democrats, because at the end of the day, Donald Trump will be the default governor of this state if one of his hand-picked puppets wins,” he said.
It’s a fight all of the candidates seem ready to have, again.
But it’s not just about the past since the next governor will oversee the state’s 2028 elections, when Trump has said he may try to remain in office for a third term, even though the Constitution prevents it.
Would the Georgia governor be with Trump or against him then? The 2026 elections will decide.
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