Brad Raffensperger
Brad Raffensperger | |
---|---|
29th Secretary of State of Georgia | |
Assumed office January 14, 2019 | |
Governor | Brian Kemp |
Preceded by | Robyn Crittenden |
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 50th district | |
In office February 10, 2015 – January 14, 2019 | |
Preceded by | Lynne Riley |
Succeeded by | Angelika Kausche |
Personal details | |
Born | Bradford Jay Raffensperger May 18, 1955 |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Tricia |
Children | 3 |
Residence(s) | Johns Creek, Georgia, U.S. |
Education | University of Western Ontario (BS) Georgia State University (MBA) |
Occupation | Businessman, politician |
Profession | Civil engineer |
Bradford Jay Raffensperger (born May 18, 1955)[1][2] is an American businessman, civil engineer, and politician serving as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing District 50.
Raffensperger rose to national prominence in the aftermath of the
Raffensperger was reelected in the 2022 Georgia Secretary of State election, after defeating Trump-backed Jody Hice in the Republican primary and Democratic challenger Bee Nguyen in the general election.
Early life and career
Raffensperger earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University.[3]
Raffensperger is the chief executive officer of Tendon Systems, LLC, a contracting and engineering firm that operates in Columbus, Georgia, and Forsyth County, Georgia.[3] He amassed a net worth of $26.5 million from his work in the private sector.[4]
Political career
Johns Creek City Council
Raffensperger is a lifelong Republican.[5] He served on the Post 2 seat of the Johns Creek City Council from 2012 to 2014.[6][7][8] He replaced Dan McCabe on the City Council.[7] He resigned in November 2014 to run for the special election to represent the 50th district in the Georgia House, and was succeeded by Chris Coughlin.[8][9]
Georgia House of Representatives
Raffensperger subsequently won his bid to the Georgia House in 2015, succeeding Lynne Riley.[1][10][11] In the state House, Raffensperger sponsored legislation to bar county officials from personally profiting from tax liens. Previously, the Fulton County tax commissioner personally collected fees from tax liens and sales of tax liens to private collection companies, allowing him to amass $200,000 over a four-year period. The legislation ended this self-enrichment practice.[12] Raffensperger also sponsored a measure to amend the Georgia state constitution to allow the re-creation of a county that previously existed but had later merged with another county; the measure would allow northern Fulton County to split off to form Milton County.[13]
Georgia Secretary of State
2018 election
Raffensperger ran for the Secretary of State of Georgia in the 2018 election.[14] The Secretary of State in Georgia oversees elections[15] and is chairman of the state election board.[16] The Secretary of State also oversees business registration and occupational licensing.[15]
In the
In the November 6, 2018, general election, Raffensperger finished with the most votes, leading
Disputes regarding purging of voter rolls and Latino voter access
In 2019, Raffensperger fought 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, as she contested his action to remove 300,000 names from the voter registration rolls, and he won the case. In 2021, he removed over 100,000 additional names from the Georgia rolls, depending in part on data received from ERIC, the national Electronic Registration Information Center.[21]
The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) and other civil rights groups sued Raffensperger's Office and the
2020 elections
May and June primary elections
In 2020, the Georgia presidential primaries, originally set for March 24, were moved to May 19 (the date for non-presidential primaries in Georgia), due to the
To protect voting rights during the pandemic, Raffensperger directed the mailing of absentee (mail-in) ballot applications to all of Georgia's 6.9 million active registered voters for the state's June 2020 primary.[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.[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. Some seem to be saying that our office should have ignored the wave of absentee voting that was clearly coming."[25] After encountering opposition, the proposed ban died in the Georgia General Assembly.[28]
November general elections
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.[29] Rather, Raffensperger created an online portal for Georgia voters to request absentee ballots.[29] He encouraged voters to take advantage of in-person early voting and mail-in voting.[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.[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.[32][33][34]
Trump's efforts to change the election results
After the election, Raffensperger's fellow Republicans, Georgia's U.S. Senators,
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. 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.
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.[45] The law handed control of the state election board chair to the state legislature.[45]
Trump–Raffensperger phone call
A recording of an hour-long phone call between President Donald Trump, Raffensperger, and several other state and federal officials on January 2, 2021, was obtained by The Washington Post and released the following day.[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." Raffensperger repeatedly rebuffed Trump's attempts to pressure him.[48][49][50]
After the taped call was published, Democratic congressional leaders asked the
While some House Republicans tried to defend Trump's Georgia call, Democrats began drafting a
Raffensperger testified in
2022 election
Raffensperger was reelected to a second term in 2022. Trump had endorsed a primary challenger Jody Hice, a supporter of his election fraud claims.[61][62] Facing punitive opposition by the former president, death threats, harassment, and having to confront misinformation and lies asserted by an opponent, Raffensperger explained his motivation to run for reelection: "If the good walk off the field and leave the field to the bad, then the bad wins."[63]
Raffensperger fended off his primary challengers, ultimately winning the 50% of the votes needed to avoid a runoff. He defeated the Democratic Party nominee, Democratic state representative Bee Nguyen, in the November general election.[64]
Electoral history
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger | 185,386 | 34.96% | |
Republican | David Belle Isle | 151,328 | 28.54% | |
Republican | Joshua McKoon | 112,113 | 21.14% | |
Republican | Buzz Brockway | 81,492 | 15.37% | |
Total votes | 530,319 | 100.00% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger | 331,127 | 61.74% | |
Republican | David Belle Isle | 205,223 | 38.26% | |
Total votes | 536,350 | 100.00% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger | 1,906,588 | 49.09% | |
Democratic | John Barrow | 1,890,310 | 48.67% | |
Libertarian | Smythe DuVal | 86,696 | 2.23% | |
Total votes | 3,883,594 | 100.0% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger | 764,855 | 51.89% | |
Democratic | John Barrow | 709,049 | 48.11% | |
Total votes | 1,473,904 | 100.0% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger (incumbent) | 611,616 | 52.37 | |
Republican | Jody Hice | 389,447 | 33.34 | |
Republican | David Belle Isle | 103,272 | 8.84 | |
Republican | TJ Hudson | 63,646 | 5.45 | |
Total votes | 1,167,981 | 100.00% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brad Raffensperger (incumbent) | 2,081,241 | 53.23 | |
Democratic | Bee Nguyen | 1,719,922 | 43.99 | |
Libertarian | Ted Metz | 108,884 | 2.78 | |
Total votes |
Personal life
Raffensperger and his wife, Tricia, have three children and two grandchildren.[3] Raffensperger is a member of the North Point Community Church.[71]
Raffensperger has four siblings. Donald Trump has falsely claimed that Raffensperger has a brother, Ron, who "works for China", but Raffensperger's only brother is not named Ron and does not work for or in China.[72] There is a Huawei executive named Ron Raffensperger, but they are not related.[73]
References
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