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Georgia Secretary of StateBrad Raffensperger doesnt regret standing up to former President Donald Trumps challenges to the 2020 election.

But dont ask the bespectacled 65-year-old formercivil engineer to give out a list of state Republicans he counts as friendsas he gears up for reelection next year against a Trump-endorsed primary opponent.

I wouldnt out them right now," Raffensperger told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview, "but we have lots of friends who are reasonable and rationale Ronald Reagan-type Republicans."

Raffensperger'shesitancy to name his closest allies shouldn't besurprising; he knows better than most about what getting on Trump's bad side can bring.

As recently as last week, the former president targeted Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp as "RINOs" Republicans in Name Only. Around the same time as Trump's latest missive, Raffensperger noted his wife receiveda new round of death threats via text message.

For Republicans trying to unite the state party after a round of Democratic victories in the presidential election and two pivotal Senate runoffs, a civil war against top state GOP leaders, led byTrump and his supporters,is seen as an unnecessarydistraction.Many party officials would rather spend time rallying against Democratic opponents ofa new election law, which has again thrust Georgia into an unflattering national spotlight.

President Trump pressures Ga. Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger on voter fraud in the state

In a recorded phone call, President Trump is heard pressuring Ga. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' votes to reverse his loss.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

But among conservativesbrought to politics and activismbyTrumps fiery populism, the belief is that a party purge is needed.

Tyler Johnson, autility line workerwho voted for Trump in 2020, said the former presidents dispatches are a welcomed push to the right.

"He'sstill involved and he's still fighting," said Johnson,chairman of the Lee County Republican Party. "And that's something I believe has been missing from the Republican Party."

Whether it's banning transgender students from participating in high school sports or establishing a "religious liberty" law,current Republican officeholders makepromises that are rarely kept, Johnson said. And inthe wake of a backlash against the election law which Trumped branded "too weak" but critics have called"Jim Crow 2.0" grassroots conservatives feel theyvecompromised enough.

"A lot of times when (controversial)things happen, it just always seems like Republicans backed away," Johnson said.

As Georgia Republicans look to mend their fractures after Trump's election loss and his assault on the state's elected officials,theintraparty power struggle will serveas a roadmapfor how the national partynavigates Trump's magnetic persona.

"As a Georgia Republican, I do feel we have many strengths that we're bringing to the table, but wehave a little bit of healing to do and wehave to take a look at our party and where we're going in the future," said Marci McCarthy, a Georgia businesswoman and Republican activist.

Raffensperger's race is one of the earliest tests for how Republican candidates and voters will maneuver a post-Trump worldas the former president continues to use hisFlorida-based Mar-a-Lago resort for fundraising and settling personal scores against Republican leaders.

Some state Republicans are nervous, pointing to Southern states that were once long-held GOP strongholds and are now considered more competitive because of Trumps drag on the party. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed 50% of Americans have a less favorable opinion of the Republican Party compared with a year ago.

Republican John Cowan, a self-described constitutional Christian conservative neurosurgeon who lives in northern Georgia, said the continued obsession some voters have with the former president has gone too far.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on, Nov. 11, 2020, in Atlanta.Brynn Anderson, AP

Until we had President Trump, I never really saw the conservative movement making an idol out of the party leader where it was a fealty more than a loyalty, he said.

Cowan, who lost a primaryrace against now-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Republicans such as Raffensperger should be praised, rather than run out of the party, for sticking to the rule of law.

Republicans like himself still have great respect for Trump, but Cowan added conservatives like himhave to be akeel for the ship in 2022 to keep the GOP from tippingover and further alienating moderate voters in Georgia's suburbs a crucial constituency in Democrats' recent statewide victories.

Trump was a dynamic leader, and after eight years of (Barack) Obama the party was looking for someone to bring us out of the wilderness, Cowan said. And instead of him being Moses, some people turned him into God, and I think we lost our way a little.

But University ofGeorgiapolitical science professor Charles Bullock said Republicans who don't hold Trump's worldview will have a difficult time. The university's statewide polling in Januaryshowed about three-fourths of Republicans believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, Bullock said, while noting a number of primary contenders more closely aligned with Trump's brand of politics have emerged and will bevying for multiple state government offices.

"Right now it looks like come summer of 2022 we'll have a range of candidates pledged to Trump running, and that can create a huge rift in the Republican Party," Bullock said. "That could ultimately unfold in November to benefit the Democrats. For instance,we seewhite college-educated voters going for Republicans, but at a much lower rate in each election since 2016."

Charles Bullock, University of Georgia professorUniversity of Georgia

Republicans therefore will face tougher choices in primary battles often along the fault lineof whether to dig deeper into right-wing populism that excites a largely white, working-class base or choose policies that appeal to the states changing demographics.

So far theyve doubled down on the populism, Bullock said.

National observers have repeatedly called attention totheincreased diversification of the Souths population, which makes statewide races inGeorgiamore competitive .

Trump allies don't think that automatically puts them at a disadvantage, however, and they say Trumps populist appeal broke through four years of him being branded as a racist. Voting data showed Trump improved his supportin 78 of the countrys top 100 majority-Hispanic counties from 2016 to 2020.

Theres a potential, if the Republican Party changes its attitude about immigrants, (it) can make some headway with that group, Bullock said. If so that would rebalance the power towards their direction.

Political activist McCarthy, believed by many to be in lineto take over the DeKalb County Republican Party,told USA TODAY that Georgias conservative movement has to reevaluate itself.

"I really want to say Republicans are not white supremacists, and that notion is a really horrible stereotype," she said.

McCarthy,president and CEO of T.E.N., an Atlanta-basedcybersecurity firm, said that includes being a more inclusive party that canbring forth new voters across racial lines. But whatever differences state party leaders and activists have, one thing that won't change ishowTrump,who is still the subject of investigation into allegations of improper election interference byFulton County prosecutors, remainsan important figure.

McCarthy said reconciliationwithin thestate GOP should begin withsticking upfor the new election law,which she and others organized to get passed,rather than where voters, officialsor candidates stand onTrump.

"We turned anger into action and advocacy, and we made a difference with the passing of the election integrity bill, which is 100% being misunderstood,"she said.

McCarthy noted that fact-checkers dingedPresidentJoe Biden for falsely stating Georgia's Republican-controlled legislature ended "voting hours early so working people cant cast their vote after their shift is over."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp holds a news conference in Atlanta after Major League Baseball's pulled the 2021 All-Star Game from the city over objections to a new state voting law.The Associated Press

Under the new law, Peach State counties are now allowedto extend voting hoursas early as 7 a.m. and as late as 7 p.m.

"The misinformation being spread about the law is astounding," she said.

Kemp, also a frequent targetof Trump, has been heeding McCarthy's advice by defending the law in national media interviews but also to rural voters in stops across southern Georgia, according to GOP activists.

"The state is really rallying behind Brian as far as his stance on the law," saidRepublican Tracy Taylor, a Dougherty County firefighter, who considers the governor a mentor.

Several Georgia Republicans acknowledge that the election law representsKemp's last hopeto mend fenceswith a base fiercely loyal to Trump.

I want to be clear: I will not be backing down from this fight, Kemp said in a news conference April 3. "We will not be intimidated, and we will also not be silenced."

Taylor noted the governor is taking his message directly to voters that boycotts against the state, including Major League Baseball's decision to move its All-Star Game,will hurt minority-owned businesses most. He said the attacks from Trump may havemade many leery of Kemp, but the election law fallout has awakened conservatives to the threat ofDemocrat Stacey Abrams running for governor again in 2022.

"I've never seen a governor down here in rural Georgie as active as Brian making the case this way," Taylorsaid. "It's very much what we need. He's not easy to rattle, so youdon't seehim bickering with every Trump comment,and those voters are really warming back up to the governor."

Raffenspergerhas also praised parts of the election law, such as expanding the number ofearly voting days and requiring a voter ID to obtain an absentee ballot, an idea he supported during the 2018 campaign.

In a recent op-ed, Gabriel Sterling, chief financial officer in the secretary of state's office, joined the chorus of Georgia Republicans bycalling out Biden. He said the president's comments about the law are "dangerous hyperbole" no different fromTrump's rhetoric.

"While this isnt necessarily how Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, or I, would have written this law, it is not what President Biden claims," Sterling wrote."We saw just three months ago how election disinformation such as this can lead to violence. It was wrong then, and its wrong now."

Ann White demonstrates at the Georgia State Capitol building after lawmakers passed an overhaul of state election laws.Alyssa Pointer, AP

Republican activists, however, noted Raffensperger has sharply criticized other parts of the law in contrast to Kemp's full-throated defense.

He chastisedGeorgia lawmakers forstripping the secretary of state of his role overseeing state election boards; forbidding food and water to be given to voters a certain distance from the polls;and an effort to block Sunday voting thateventually was taken out of the final version of the bill.

"You don't get any credit when you're going to dosomething bad and then all of a sudden you go back to where it was," Raffensperger told USA TODAY. "From that standpoint, it was just not politically wise what they did there."

Raffensperger also broke with the party line on the boycotts against the state, and he tookGeorgia legislators to task when asked about the MLB yanking its 2021 All-Star Game out of the state, saying they should have done a better job smoothing things over with corporate leaders and sports leagues before the bill passed.

"I would have thought the General Assembly, particularly (Speaker of the House David Ralston), would have had more conversations with these corporations to really hear them and explain what you're doing and what you're not doing," he said.

Johnson, the Lee County GOP chairman, said conservative activistsin his part of the state, along thesouthern border close to the Florida Panhandle, notice the difference. He said that while many stillresentKemp for failing to back Trump on his election challenges last fall, those south Georgianvoters appreciate howthe governor is using his time to standup to national brands andmedia outlets over the election law.

"There is kind of a renewed rally going on at the state party level and down here at the grassroots level," Johnson said. "There's a lot of support for Kemp, and that'sbecause webelieve Stacey Abrams is going to run for governor again, and we've got to pretty much bet on the horse we have in the race already and the guy we've been behind for the last four years."

Raffensperger, however,hasno chance at redemption or winning,he said.

"I can't find you100 people who would vote for him at this point," Johnson said.

Link:
'A little bit of healing to do': Georgia Republicans look to mend after months of division - USA TODAY