Another Republican joins race to succeed Raffensperger as state elections chief

The Republican primary to select Georgia’s next Secretary of State just gained another challenger as former Democrat-turned-Republican Vernon Jones entered the race. Jones, who has served in local and state elective office, announced Monday that he is running to succeed Brad Raffensperger as head of the agency that oversees elections and business licensing. “Georgia deserves a Secretary of State who will protect every legal vote and restore trust in our elections,” Jones said in a statement circulated on X. Jones served as a Democrat in the Georgia state House twice, the first time in the 1990s and then in the 2010s. In between, he won election twice as the leader of DeKalb County government, serving CEO for eight years in the 2000s. After leaving that role, Jones ran an unsuccessful campaign for DeKalb sheriff. He then won a seat in the state House, still as a Democrat. He switched to the Republican party as his final term expired in 2021, after endorsing Donald Trump’s unsuccessful presidential bid against Joe Biden. Jones then ran against Gov. Brian Kemp during the primary before Kemp’s second term as governor, dropping out of that race to run for the 10th Congressional seat, losing to current U.S. Rep. Mike Collins despite an endorsement from Trump. Jones will be contesting the GOP primary against Raffensperger’s former top lieutenant, Gabriel Sterling, who announced his candidacy in the GOP primary last month just before Raffensperger announced he was running for governor. Also in the race is state Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, whom House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, tapped to lead an ongoing election procedures study committee. Fleming is a longtime ally and advisor to Gov. Brian Kemp, having served as his chief of staff in both the governor’s office and when Kemp was Secretary of State before Raffensperger. And Kelvin King is running as a Republican in the Secretary of State primary, too. King lost to Herschel Walker in the 2022 GOP primary for U.S. Senate, the seat ultimately won by Democrat Raphael Warnock. King is married to Janelle King, an appointed member of the State Election Board. Two Democrats have filed with the state to raise campaign funds for their Secretary of State campaigns — Adrian Consonery, Jr. and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County State Court judge. The post Another Republican joins race to succeed Raffensperger as state elections chief appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.