ATLANTA — With few high-ranking elected Republican officials in Georgia backing Donald Trump’s false allegations of losing the presidential election, the former president backed a slate of candidates to defeat the incumbents.

Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger bore the brunt of Trump’s attacks, with claims that they — and leaders in several states — allowed the November 2020 elections to be “stolen” from Republicans due to election fraud, though audits repeatedly confirmed the results.

The results saw Democrats take two U.S. Senate seats that were held by Republicans and Democrat President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.

Most of the Trump-backed candidates came up empty Tuesday during the Georgia primary election. 

“We learned last night that most Republican voters in the state, even if they are willing to entertain some of Mr. Trump’s fantasies about a stolen election, as part of everyday political (parlance), they’re not willing to vote for it,” said Alvin Tillery Jr., an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, a prestigious research institution. “I think we saw that very clearly in the polling with Mr. Kemp and David Perdue, but the Raffensperger win last night really, really puts a nail in the coffin of that argument. I mean, no one was more squarely targeted than Mr. Raffensperger.”  

Despite a heated primary, Kemp swept the Republican field with nearly 74% of the vote — a large margin over Trump-backed David Perdue (22%), according to 95% of votes tallied as of noon May 25. Kemp will face Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams again in the November general election.

Perdue spent much of his campaign attacking Kemp and supporting Trump’s claims that Kemp, in part, is the reason behind Trump’s November 2020 defeat for president. Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Georgia to attend Kemp’s last campaign event the day before the May 24 primary. Pence did not mention Trump during his speech at the rally.  

On Election Day, Pence continued his push for Kemp, stating “The Great American Comeback starts today.”

Raffensperger narrowly avoided a runoff, but largely defeated Trump-backed candidate Jody Hice in the Republican primary for secretary of state.

Raffensperger received more than 52% of the vote, compared to Hice, a current congressman, who received little more than 33%.  

Incumbent Attorney General Chris Carr beat his Trump-endorsed opponent John Gordon by a landslide, receiving nearly 74% of votes. Carr will face Democrat Jen Jordan, who had a similar margin of victory in the Democrat primary.  

Trump’s candidate Burt Jones is the only candidate to succeed at the state-level races, clenching just enough votes (just over 50%) to avoid a Republican runoff for lieutenant governor. In the four-person race, Georgia Rep. Butch Miller was in a far second place with 31% of votes.  

Jones will face the winner of the Democrat primary runoff.  

While it appears Trump’s backing had little influence at the state-level, Georgia candidates endorsed by Trump in federal races had a bit more success. All of his endorsed incumbent candidates secured the Republican nomination for their seats.  

That includes District 14 U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who swept her five Republican challengers. She received nearly 70% of votes and will face Democrat Marcus Flowers in November.  

In her victory speech on the evening of May 24, Greene said Republicans must continue to “fight fearlessly and faithfully in Congress for what President Trump started … the America First agenda.

“I have a great relationship with President Trump. He’s my favorite president after all,” Greene said. “I’m going to work with him to deliver the America First policies that America needs and America desperately wants. … I think the whole world misses President Trump right now.”

Trump-backed Herschel Walker had a landslide victory over his five Republican challengers in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race. The former Georgia football star received the Republican nomination with 68% of all votes. 

“Yes, he’s got name recognition for being a big football star in the state 30-plus years ago and in the NFL and USFL,” Tillery said. “I do think in that race, where there’s no known quantity on the Republican side, where the establishment politicians can rally behind to challenge Mr. Walker. I also think, you know, Senate Minority Leader (Mitch) McConnell also cleared the field and endorsed Herschel Walker, which signaled that people shouldn’t challenge him.”

Walker is looking to unseat Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won the seat in a 2021 runoff against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.  

In the District 10 race for U.S. Representative for Georgia, Trump-endorsed Vernon Jones clenched a seat in the runoff against business owner Mike Collins. Collins, however, secured more votes, nearly 26%, than Jones who had nearly 22% of the votes.  

In the race for U.S. District 6, Trump-endorsee Jake Evans did not secure a majority of the votes, but enough to land him a seat in the runoff against Rich McCormick, who received more than 43% of votes. Evans placed second in the in-person races with 23% of votes. 

Tillery referenced an Alabama U.S. Senate race where incumbent Rep. Mo Brooks — who was initially endorsed by Trump — heads to a runoff. Trump pulled his endorsement of Brooks in March reportedly due to Brooks now wanting to move past the November 2020 election rhetoric. Primary challenger Katie Britt came away with nearly 45% of the votes and Brooks placed second with 29.1%.

“It’s just further evidence sort of mainstream Republicans pushing back against Mr. Trump’s politics,” Tillery said. “I do think that there may have been a negative impact to Brooks crossing Donald Trump earlier in the cycle, so we just don’t know there but I think if he were truly a kingmaker, then there wouldn’t be that runoff in Alabama going forward.”

Perhaps one of Trump’s more successful endorsement victories is J.D. Vance, whose popularity increased in the Ohio U.S. Senate race after receiving Trump’s support. Vance had received 32% of votes in the seven-person Republican primary.  

In a Pennsylvania primary race for U.S. Senate, Mehmet Oz (known famously as Dr. Oz) — who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump — led Dave McCormick by less than 1,000 votes. The two each received approximately 31% of the votes in the seven-person race. A recount has been announced in that race.