Georgia GOP secretary of state primary shaped by 2020 election debates

Vernon Jones and Tim Fleming will advance to a runoff after receiving at least 50 percent of the vote in Georgia’s Republican primary for secretary of state on Tuesday.

Republicans include Jones, Fleming, Gabriel Sterling, Kelvin King and Ted Metz, while Democrats include Cam Ashling, Dana Barrett, Adrian Consonery Jr. and Penny Brown Reynolds ran for their party’s nomination as Georgia’s top election official.

The race underscored how disputes arising from the 2020 presidential election, including President Donald Trump’s claims that the contest was stolen, continue to shape debates over voting laws and election security years later.

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The winner of the second round on June 16 will participate in the general elections in November; Control of the office that oversees voter registration, election certification and ballot administration there is expected to remain a closely watched issue in one of the nation’s most competitive battleground states.

Sterling, Georgia’s former secretary of state operations chief, entered the race with statewide name recognition after publicly defending how Georgia conducted its 2020 election.

Jones, a former Democratic state lawmaker and Trump ally, ran his campaign as a staunch supporter of the president and emerged as a harsh critic of the state’s election system.

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Vernon Jones, a former Democratic state lawmaker and Republican ally of President Donald Trump, ran for secretary of state in Georgia’s GOP primary. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

King is a general contractor who previously ran for the U.S. Senate and is married to State Board of Elections member and conservative commentator Janelle King.

Fleming previously worked at the state department when current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp held the position. The former chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia has presented himself as a conservative focused on tightening election procedures.

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Candidates in Georgia’s race for secretary of state are vying to oversee elections in one of the nation’s most closely watched battleground states. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Metz, the Libertarian Party’s 2022 gubernatorial candidate, also joined the GOP primary field.

Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who gained national attention after rejecting efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results, is running for governor.

This is an evolving story. Check back for the latest election results and updates.