Raffensperger says he can maintain Trump relationship as he campaigns for GA governor
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who’s making a bid for Georgia governor as a Republican, told The Telegraph Friday that he can maintain a relationship with President Donald Trump despite the two being at odds over the 2020 presidential election.
A Republican who’s been in state politics for nearly a decade, Raffensperger made headlines during the 2020 presidential election when he defied Trump’s request to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat in Georgia against former President Joe Biden.
Now, Raffensperger is one of the many Republican hopefuls entering the race for Georgia’s highest office. During a sit-down interview with The Telegraph, Raffensperger emphasized plans to improve education and cap property taxes for seniors, and how he navigates his relationship with President Trump.
Raffensperger says he can maintain a relationship with Trump
After Raffensperger refused to comply with Trump’s request, and a recording of the phone conversation was leaked to the public, Trump endorsed Jody Hice, another Republican that challenged Raffensperger for his position as Georgia’s secretary of state during his bid for reelection in 2022. Raffensperger won the Republican primary by nearly 20 points.
Despite past disagreements, Raffensperger said Friday he feels confident that he can navigate a relationship with the president if he were to be elected governor.
“We align on a couple of important issues,” Raffensperger said. He said that both he and Trump agree that bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. is a major priority, and that they are both concerned with public safety.
Raffensperger says he wants to cap property taxes at the state level
Raffensperger told The Telegraph that, if elected, he wants to work with the state legislature to cap property taxes for seniors on fixed incomes.
Georgia voted through a referendum in November 2024 to limit how much of a home’s increasing value could be taxed. However, many homeowners did benefit from the change due to nearly every school district in the state opting out of the change.
Raffensperger said he wants to take a different approach to limiting rising property taxes by passing a cap, tying it to broader issues with living costs in Georgia. The legislation would be aimed at seniors who live on fixed incomes and are concerned about keeping their primary residences.
“We need to cap property taxes because they’ve been well beyond the cost of inflation,” Raffensperger said. “I think that’s another way of addressing affordability.”
Property values have risen sharply in Georgia since the pandemic. According to data from Zillow, the median sale price for a home in Georgia increased by more than $100,000 between October 2020, when it was about $228,500, and September of this year, when the median was more than $332,000.
Georgia needs to bolster technical education, Raffensperger says
Raffensperger said that as governor, he would continue to push technical and career education to coincide with Georgia’s efforts to attract more manufacturers.
He argued that as Georgia continues to create jobs by attracting investment from manufacturers, the demand for skilled laborers will increase. He promised to invest state money into trade schools and career academies if elected.
“I really believe strongly in the trades,” Raffensperger said. “You always need skilled labor, and as advanced manufacturing comes back to America, we’re going to need more skilled labor.”
According to data from the National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturing has added more than $84 billion to Georgia’s economy and employs nearly half a million people across the state.