Georgia's GOP elections chief a no show with legislators as he fights Trump's demands

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declined to make an in-person appearance before the state Senate Ethics Committee as drama escalates over President Donald Trump's demands for the state's voting data, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

Per the report, instead of attending, "secretary of state officials sent a letter to the committee chair saying they would not attend because of ongoing litigation with the U.S. Department of Justice."

The Trump administration has demanded huge amounts of voter data from state election bureaus around the country. While some Republican-dominated states have complied, Democratic states have largely resisted. Raffensperger is notable for being a Republican who is also resisting, citing a state law that prevents voters' Social Security numbers from being shared with third parties.

Raffensperger is notorious for standing up to Trump after he lost Georgia in the 2020 election, rebuffing his demand to "find" extra votes to flip the state in his favor.

Since then, Raffensperger, a committed conservative, has frequently backed the GOP party line on a number of other voting issues, defending a controversial law that prohibits anyone from giving voters food and water while standing in line, and pressuring Fulton County to allow Republican officials to appoint election deniers to their local administrative board. Nonetheless, he has refused to endorse Trump's conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

He is now one of a number of GOP heavyweights running in the primary to succeed outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, including state Attorney General Chris Carr, and Lt. Gov and former fake MAGA elector Burt Jones, the latter two of whom have been at each other's throats over fundraising rules.