One is a Republican who says he is a conservative, and another is a former Republican now running as a Democrat.
Both are going after the governor’s seat of Georgia, a battleground state that President Donald Trump won back in the 2024 election.
1 – Brad Raffensperger jumps into the Georgia governor’s race
From NBC News: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday that he is running for governor, a high-profile Republican entry into the race for the battleground state’s gubernatorial seat.
“I’m a conservative Republican, and I’m prepared to make the tough decisions,” he said in an announcement video. “I follow the law and the Constitution, and I’ll always do the right thing for Georgia no matter what.”
The current governor, Brian Kemp, is in his second term and is term-limited.
Raffensperger became known nationally following the 2020 election, when Joe Biden was declared the winner in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes, and massive allegations of voter fraud were raised.
President Donald Trump had placed a phone call to Raffensperger, asking him to investigate to be sure the election results were correct, noting that the only difference was 11,780 votes. Trump was then accused of trying to overturn the election – a narrative that mainstream media still pushes.
Other Republicans already in the race for Georgia governor are state Attorney General Chris Carr and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. President Trump has recently endorsed Jones.
Reffensperger announced his campaign in a video posted on his website Wednesday morning.
2 – Former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan to run for Georgia governor as Democrat
From the Augusta Chronicle: Geoff Duncan, Georgia’s former Republican lieutenant governor, is running for governor as a Democrat, putting financial security and political moderation at the center of his campaign.
Duncan says in a brief YouTube video that he wants “to make Georgia the front line of Democracy and a backstop against extremism.”
He puts President Donald Trump in the extremist camp.
Duncan has been jabbing at Trump for years, attracting the president’s ire by rejecting his assertions that he had won the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In 2021, Duncan published the book, “GOP 2.0,” which urged a pivot from Trump’s brand of politics. Since then, he has shared his anti-Trump message as a commentator on CNN and as a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The report also notes that after Duncan endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024, the Georgia Republican Party expelled him.
Other Democrats already running for governor of Georgia include Jason Esteves, who recently stepped down from his state Senate seat; former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms; and state labor commissioner Michael Thurmond.
Duncan announced his campaign in a video message Tuesday:
I’m in. Georgians deserve leaders with the courage to take on Donald Trump, lower costs for families, and do what’s right. With your help, we can win this election and I’ll proudly serve as Georgia’s Democratic governor.https://t.co/Lnq9nWuDS2 pic.twitter.com/D6Ri3dVspF
— Geoff Duncan (@GeoffDuncanGA) September 16, 2025
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