Trump's 2020 grievance tour fell flat in Georgia, but his lies about the election are animating GOP races around the country

Business Insider

Georgia resoundingly rejected two candidates who largely ran on Trump’s 2020 election grievances.

Former Sen. David Perdue speaks May 3, 2022, in Rutledge, Ga. Perdue got trounced in his Trump-endorsed challenge to Gov. Brian Kemp, largely based on attacking the 2020 election.

But attacks on the 2020 election are animating other Republican primaries around the country.Candidates who cast doubt on or tried to overturn the 2020 election made headway in Alabama.

Former President Donald Trump took his train of grievances down to Georgia, but the voters wanted no part in it.

Trump tried to exact revenge on incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp for certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory by endorsing his challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, who said he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election.

But Perdue received a swift and brutal shellacking from Kemp, losing to the incumbent governor by over 50 points with over 95% of the votes in as of Wednesday morning.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump unsuccessfully pressured to “find” him 11,780 votes on an extraordinary post-election phone call, beat expectations and defeated Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Jody Hice, outright, narrowly avoiding a June runoff election.

Kemp, Raffensperger, and Georgia’s voters sent a resounding message to Trump that his election grievances have outstayed their welcome in the Peach State, and, importantly, reduced the chances of partisan meddling in the 2024 election.

These victories show the limits of campaigns driven by Trump’s sour grapes, but they don’t mean that Trump’s election lies have lost their potency among Republican voters. Indeed, in open primaries for key election posts around the country, candidates who pose a threat to fair elections in 2024 are making headway with and without Trump’s endorsement.

“In 16 states right now, there are still people in the running who are election denier candidates,” Al Vanderklipp, a fellow at the nonpartisan Election Reformers Network who tracks secretary of state races, told Insider…