Anti-voting Republican Tim Fleming advances in Georgia Secretary of State race

Georgia state Rep. Tim Fleming (R), who campaigned on stricter voting laws and false claims about election fraud, won the Republican runoff for secretary of state Tuesday, moving one step closer to becoming the top election official in the key battleground state.

Fleming defeated Vernon Jones, a Trump ally and former Democratic state lawmaker who has falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen. 

Fleming will face the Democratic runoff winner, former Fulton County state judge Penny Brown Reynolds, in November.

The race will decide who replaces Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who became a national figure in 2020 after resisting President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The secretary of state is Georgia’s chief election official, responsible for overseeing elections, guiding local election officials and helping certify statewide results. In Georgia, where Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020, that gives the office major national significance ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

Fleming, a former deputy secretary of state under then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R), has made restrictive voting policies central to his campaign.

His campaign says he would “champion voter ID and election transparency,” “deport any illegals attempting to vote in Georgia” and “make it impossible for the Left to cheat in our elections.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election. The state’s presidential results were confirmed three times, including once by hand, and multiple lawsuits failed to overturn the outcome.

Fleming has also pushed to make it harder for Georgians to register to vote.

Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would have dismantled Georgia’s automatic voter registration system, which registers eligible voters when they interact with state agencies unless they opt out.

Jones was the more explicit election denier in the race, saying during a debate, “I stand with those who believe that there was election fraud.”

But Fleming’s victory still gives Georgia Republicans a nominee who has embraced the party’s broader push to restrict voting access under the banner of “election integrity.”

His win sets up a November race that could determine whether Georgia’s elections are run by a pro-democracy official — or by a Republican who has campaigned on making voting harder in one of the nation’s most closely watched states.