WASHINGTON — As former President Donald Trump has sought to maintain his hold on the Republican Party, he has trained his sights on Tuesday’s GOP primaries in Georgia, where he has endorsed nine candidates, including a former senator running for governor and an incumbent House member running for secretary of state.
Along with a nominee for Senate who will likely challenge incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, Georgia Republicans will weigh in on state officials who attracted Trump’s ire for refusing to overturn the 2020 election. Trump backed former Sen. David Perdue’s challenge against GOP Gov. David Kemp. Trump is also endorsing Georgia Rep. Jody Hice’s challenge to Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger.
Early voting hit record levels – a 239% increase from the same point in the 2018 primary and a 160% increase over the 2020 primary, according to the Secretary of State. While most of those voters were Republicans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that about 7 percent of voters casting ballots in Republican primaries had voted as Democrats in 2020, which is allowed under the state’s open primary rules.
