Georgia’s GOP lieutenant governor attacks ‘missing’ Raffensperger in new ad

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) attacked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for going “missing” from his job in an attack ad posted Monday.

In the ad, Jones accused Raffensperger of spending 70 percent of his time away from his job since 2020, including missing “important budget hearings, election integrity hearings, and literally just not showing up to work.”

The video included clips of officials at meetings who were questioning why Raffensperger was not in attendance. 

“And so far, Brad Raffensperger has only worked 42 days this year. That’s right — 42 days. And since 2021, he’s been missing from work 70 percent of the time. If you or I did that, we’d be fired from our jobs,” the narrator of the video states. 

“If you see Brad Raffensperger, please call the secretary of State’s office to get him back to work,” the narrator added. 

Raffensperger’s office dismissed the criticism in the ad, saying that the secretary is focusing on the 2024 election. 

“The Secretary is fully focused on a successful 2024 election,” deputy secretary of state Jordan Fuchs said in a statement. “While desperate politicians and election deniers work to discredit the outcome of next year’s election, we will continue to focus on preparing our counties for a smooth, secure and successful election.” 

A Georgia state official said in August that a special prosecutor would be appointed to examine Jones’s actions following the 2020 election in the wake of former President Trump’s indictment in the state.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) had charged Trump and 18 others in connection with her election investigation in August but could not bring charges against Jones due to a conflict of interest. 

Jones, who was backed by Trump in his 2022 election to lieutenant governor, sought a special session regarding overturning the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Raffensperger had pushed back on Trump’s 2020 election claims that the results were stolen from him. 

Trump had asked Raffensperger in a 2020 phone call to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.” Raffensperger ultimately refused to go along with the efforts to “find” votes to overturn the election.