Trump's false claims about the 2020 election are casting a shadow over
Georgia's GOP runoffs
[May 21, 2026]
By BILL BARROW and KATE BRUMBACK
ATLANTA (AP) — For Donald Trump, it seems the 2020 presidential election
is never over. That's especially true in Georgia.
The Republican president’s years of false claims that his defeat to
Democrat Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud have shadowed many
elections since in the presidential battleground. The issue is almost
certain to play a role in a four-week runoff campaign as GOP voters
choose nominees for governor, secretary of state and the U.S. Senate.
Among the contenders: one of Trump’s alternate electors in his attempt
to overturn Biden’s win in the state, a Trump acolyte who won his first
congressional race while saying Trump won in 2020 and a secretary of
state hopeful who echoes Trump’s conspiracy theories as he vies to
become Georgia’s top elections official.
To be clear, Georgia's presidential votes were counted three times,
including once by hand, and each one affirmed Biden's victory.
The primary came amid continued legal and political wrangling over how
elections are managed in Fulton County — home to heavily Democratic
Atlanta. Trump's questioning of the Georgia results and longtime
criticism of Fulton County elections were supercharged earlier this year
when the FBI searched the county’s election office, seizing ballots and
records from 2020.
The primary election's first-round results showed that siding with
Trump, even on his election lies, is good politics within the GOP.
Georgia candidates who opposed Trump’s efforts in 2020 got trounced. But
some conservatives worry that misplaying the issue — or emphasizing it
at all — could backfire with the general electorate in November.
“We’re going to look stupid,” warned Debbie Dooley, an early tea party
organizer who supported Trump from the outset of his first presidential
campaign. “What are you going to say — Trump won, and he was always the
president? It serves no purpose.”
She said Republicans should instead focus on the economy, and that any
mention of election procedures should look to “securing future
elections, looking forward.”
Whether Trump sees it that way is another question. The president
already has endorsed Burt Jones, one of his 2020 alternate electors, in
the governor’s race. Dooley, who is backing Jones, said she wouldn't be
surprised if Trump comes to Georgia to campaign — and air his 2020
grievances again.
“I don’t know if the president gets it or not,” she said.
A 2020 Trump fake elector in the governor's race
Jones was a state lawmaker in 2020 when he joined Trump’s cause to
overturn Biden’s 11,779-vote margin in Georgia. He parlayed that loyalty
into winning the lieutenant governor’s office in 2022 and getting
Trump’s early endorsement in his bid for a promotion. On Tuesday, he won
about four out of 10 Republican votes.
Trump and Jones don’t revisit the details, but Trump has praised Jones
multiple times on his Truth Social platform for his loyalty while Jones
has promoted “election integrity.”
Jones’ runoff rival, billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson, is
among the Republicans who does not talk much about the 2020 election.
But he spent a slice of the $83 million he invested in his own campaign
on an ad attacking outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger,
another GOP candidate for governor who resisted Trump’s urging to help
find “find 11,800 votes” to reverse Biden’s victory in 2020.
In the ad, a child is shown asking his mother why she chose the name
Brad. The mother replies that her second choice was “Judas” – in the New
Testament account, the name of the disciple who betrays Jesus to Roman
authorities. The full name “Brad ‘Judas’ Raffensperger” appeared on the
screen at the end of the spot.
Raffensperger finished a distant third in this week's primary, with just
15% of the vote.
Senate primary leader said Democrats stole 2020
Rep. Mike Collins, who led the Senate GOP primary with about 40% of the
vote, has never backed off his false claims that Biden’s win was rigged,
an argument he featured when he first ran for Congress in 2022.
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Georgia gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones speaks during a primary
election night watch party, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Jackson, Ga.
(AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
“You count the legal votes that were cast in the state of Georgia,
Donald Trump won this state. Period,” he said in one ad, in which he
held a long gun and bemoaned the “federal hijacking” of the 2020
election. He concluded with shooting a mock voting machine.
Collins’ runoff rival, former college football coach and political
newcomer Derek Dooley, has been more circumspect. But both men are
pledging fealty to Trump, with the president thus far not endorsing
in the race to determine who will challenge Democratic Sen. Jon
Ossoff.
It’s notable that Dooley’s main political benefactor is outgoing
Gov. Brian Kemp, who like Raffensperger drew Trump’s ire in 2020 for
certifying Biden’s slate of electors.
Kemp ran for and won reelection in 2022, saying Republicans should
look forward instead of relitigating the 2020 election. Trump
eventually made up with Kemp during the 2024 presidential campaign,
and advisers to both men say Kemp has discussed the Senate contest
with the president.
A conspiracy theorist in the race to succeed Raffensperger
State Rep. Tim Fleming, a former deputy secretary of state, and
former state Rep. Vernon Jones, a Trump loyalist and perennial
candidate, were the top vote-getters in the contest for secretary of
state and will face off next month.
Jones, a former Democrat, embraced Trump's “stop the steal” movement
and said during an Atlanta Press Club debate last month, “I stand
with those who believe there was election fraud.”
Fleming, who worked under Kemp when the governor was secretary of
state, has said there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election — a
buzz word among Republicans who stop short of echoing Trump without
refuting him. But Fleming said he believes the state has made great
strides since then in improving elections and said he wants to focus
on future elections.
Fleming and Jones far outpaced one of Raffensperger's top aides,
Gabriel Sterling, who gained attention in December 2020 for urging
Trump to help discourage threats of violence against election
workers. Sterling got 12% of the primary vote, finishing fourth.
Heavily Democratic Fulton County remains a Trump, GOP target
Trump has long fixated on Fulton County, alleging it was the center
of Georgia fraud in 2020. The FBI seized 2020 ballots and documents
from the county elections offices in January, and the county
remained a punching bag for Republicans through vote tabulations on
Tuesday.
During voting hours, two voting precincts were closed for four hours
in an Atlanta suburb after police received a call about possible
gunfire and a suspicious person wearing military-style clothing.
While the incident was unrelated to the primary, a judge ordered the
precincts to stay open until 11 p.m. to make up for the lost time,
and Fulton officials said the law prevented them from releasing any
results until those precincts were closed.
State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican runoff candidate for
lieutenant governor, tried to capitalize on the delay, despite the
fact that he's seeking an office with no role over tabulating
ballots or certifying elections.
“Here we are on Election Night, Georgians are anxiously awaiting the
results, and which county hasn’t even started reporting? It’s always
Fulton County,” Dolezal posted on social media. “It’s time for
Georgia to takeover the process. We will not have another 2020 this
November!”
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