One of the dynamics we’re closely watching tonight is how many Democrats -- or, more specifically, people who voted in the Democratic primary two years ago -- cross over to vote against Trump’s hand-picked slate of Georgia candidates.
Those voters could help Gov. Brian Kemp avoid an unpredictable runoff against former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who has argued that the 2020 elections were “rigged and stolen.”
And they could give a boost to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom 16 months ago was all but deemed a political lost cause for resisting Trump’s push to overturn Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.
Numbers crunched by the AJC’s Mark Niesse last week indicated that about 7% of the Georgia voters who had cast GOP ballots at that point, or about 16,000 people, had pulled a Democratic ballot two years ago.
AJC political columnist Patricia Murphy interviewed some of those Democrats, many of whom said they wanted to stop Trump and his picks for office.
It’s of course also possible that some of those Democrats crossed over because they liked Republican candidates. Or they wanted to pick Republicans who would be more vulnerable against Democrats this fall.
As final tallies come into focus, we’ll be looking to see if that 7% figure ultimately shrinks or expands. Stay tuned.
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