Summary
- Vernon
Jones, former Democratic state rep, now Republican. - Announced
run for Georgia Secretary of State in 2025. - Campaign
focuses on election integrity and cutting red tape.
With Trump’s support, Jones, who has referred to himself as
the “Black Donald Trump,” ran for Congress in 2022, supporting the
president’s unfounded allegations that Georgia’s 2020 election was stolen from
him.
“Trust in our elections has been shaken,”
Jones said in a
video announcing his campaign for secretary of state. He added,
“Our elections
must be secure. Our ballots must be protected.”
Republican Brad Raffensperger, the current secretary of
state, is a candidate for governor in the 2026 election. Gabriel Sterling, a
Republican and one of Raffensperger’s previous top executives, is also vying to
succeed him. After Trump contacted Raffensperger and begged him to
“find” votes to reverse Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in
Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, both gained notoriety for defending
the state’s outcome.
Jones withdrew from the 2022 gubernatorial contest and lost
to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins in the Republican congressional primary. Collins is
currently running for Trump’s support in an attempt to unseat Democratic U.S.
Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Jones held the Georgia state House for multiple terms prior
to losing to Collins. In January 2021, as his final term drew
to a close, he switched to the Republican Party. As an African American who
supported Trump’s reelection campaign, Jones gained praise in Republican
circles.
State elections, corporation registrations, professional
licensing, and other business operations are all within the secretary of
state’s jurisdiction.
Republican state representatives Kelvin King and Tim Fleming
are also running alongside Sterling. Both King and Jones pander to Trump
supporters who doubt election security. The state Supreme Court overruled
numerous significant decisions made by the State Elections Board, which
includes Janelle King, King’s wife.
Another outspoken supporter of hand-marked paper ballots, a
crucial demand from campaigners wary of Georgia’s voting machines, is Fleming,
who leads a group researching the state’s electoral system.
Democrats Adrian Consonery Jr., a little-known contender,
and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former judge on the Fulton County State Court who
briefly appeared on reality TV, are running.
How could Jones’s candidacy affect the 2026 Georgia GOP
primary?
Jones, who switched from Democrat to Republican and firmly
aligns with Donald Trump and the “America First” movement, appeals
strongly to the pro-Trump wing of the party. His candidacy could pull the
primary toward more hardline MAGA voters, challenging more moderate or
establishment candidates.
With a crowded Republican field including candidates like
Gabriel Sterling—who has a reputation for election integrity and defended the
2020 results—the presence of Jones could divide conservative voters between
Trump loyalists and more traditional Republicans, making an outright primary
victory harder for any candidate.
Jones’s emphasis on election security, voter ID laws, and
limiting mail-in ballots keeps the 2020 election fallout and voter fraud debate
central in the campaign, energizing voters concerned about these issues.
