With just one month left until election day, voters are starting to pay more attention to down-ballot races.
Perhaps the most consequential one is the battle for Secretary of State, an office that has become highly controversial in recent years. Among the Secretary of State’s important responsibilities is overseeing Georgia’s elections.
Both parties are heavily investing in this year’s contest, because the winner will essentially be the face of Georgia’s vote count in the 2024 presidential election. They could also determine just how elections are administered in the state for years to come.
Brad Raffensperger
The current Secretary of State is Republican Brad Raffensperger, an engineer and a former state lawmaker from Johns Creek. Though his term got off to a pretty low-key start, he became a household name after the 2020 election.
Raffensperger faced enormous pressure from then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle to overturn his 2020 defeat in the Peach State. Trump famously called Raffensperger to air his grievances about the state’s election results.
But Raffensperger defended Georgia’s election results and insisted that there was no fraud after multiple recounts, some of which were performed by hand. His standoff with Trump was welcomed with praise by members of both parties — and rebuffed with threats of violence from the former President’s supporters.
Trump then vowed to exact revenge on Raffensperger in the 2022 election, endorsing far-right Congressman Jody Hice in the Republican primary. But Raffensperger won the primary outright after being widely regarded as an underdog by political observers. Weeks after his win, he testified before the January 6 congressional committee as the panel investigated the events leading up to the Capitol attack.
Bee Nguyen
Many Democrats praised Raffensperger for defending Georgia’s elections and standing up to conspiracy theories. But his Democratic opponent believes that doing the bare minimum isn’t enough.
Bee Nguyen is nonprofit director and a state lawmaker who represents the same Atlanta-area legislative district that Stacey Abrams once did. She also serves in a leadership role at the state Democratic Party.
Like Raffensperger, Nguyen was also on the front lines defending Georgia’s voting systems after a tumultuous 2020 election. That December, the Trump campaign provided state lawmakers with the personal information of voters who they believe illegally cast ballots. Nguyen said at the time that no effort was made to contact the voters.
Also like Raffensperger, the Atlanta Democrat was on the receiving end of horrific messages and death threats.
Though the two seem to agree on defending our elections, Nguyen has attacked the Republican incumbent for his support of Republican-backed election laws such as the one passed in 2021. S.B. 202 cracked down on no-excuse absentee voting, limits dropboxes and reduces the powers of the Secretary of State over the state election board. She said that it was an “omnibus voter suppression bill” fueled by the conspiracy theories that plagued the 2020 election.
An uphill battle
Polling in Georgia’s down-ballot races have been limited, but a September poll from the University of Georgia found Raffensperger with a double-digit lead: 50% to Nguyen’s 31%. He also had the support of around 20% of Democrats, an unusual crossover appeal in such a politically divided state.
Raffensperger’s unusually high support from Democrats could help explain the recent attack ads that the party has launched. One ad hammers the Republican for his support of “voter suppression” laws, and another attacks him for his anti-abortion beliefs.
On the campaign trail, Nguyen has warned supporters that “Brad is not our friend” — an indication that her campaign believes any path to victory will require bringing home Democratic voters who have come to respect Raffensperger for his handling of the 2020 election.
Many people believe that Raffensperger enters the home stretch in the driver’s seat. But as Nguyen reports an impressive fundraising haul and Democrats ramp up their negative ad spending, it’s not unlikely that the race could tighten in the closing weeks.