- Geoff Duncan blasted Jody Hice as "a terrible candidate" in his primary challenge to Brad Raffensperger.
- Raffensperger defended the integrity of the 2020 vote and made his case to GOP primary voters.
- Meanwhile, Hice had Trump's endorsement, but lacked heavy name ID and didn't have a steady ad campaign.
Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan slammed Rep. Jody Hice's bid to become secretary of state following the congressman's primary election loss to Brad Raffensperger, who is seeking a second term in office this fall.
Duncan was deeply critical of former President Donald Trump's monthslong campaign to overturn the results of the November 2020 general election, and had no reservations about dismissing Hice, who was endorsed by the former president.
Raffensperger, who rejected Trump's repeated entreaties to "find" additional votes to invalidate now-President Joe Biden's statewide win in November 2020, won the GOP primary with 52 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent for Hice. By winning the election with over 50 percent of the vote, Raffensperger avoided a runoff and can focus his energies on the November race.
And Duncan, who announced earlier this year he would not run for reelection this fall and would instead focus on the GOP 2.0 independent movement to broaden the Republican coalition, was thrilled for Raffensperger and praised him for defending the integrity of Georgia's vote in 2020.
"Brad Raffensperger did absolutely the right thing during 2020. And he's been rewarded by winning a Republican primary," Duncan told Politico. "The second part is that the quality of a candidate actually still matters, and Jody Hice was a terrible candidate."
While Hice had the backing of Trump, who remains the most influential Republican in the party, it didn't translate into higher name recognition for the conservative lawmaker, who struggled to win in localities that weren't a part of his congressional district.
Raffensperger traveled across the state to defend his record to Republican voters, but Hice — who ran few ads and lacked the visibility of the incumbent secretary of state — likely was aiming to secure a spot in a June runoff election.
In the end, that didn't happen.