OPINION: The Democrats voting in the GOP primary say its all about Donald Trump – The Atlanta Journal Constitution

It also wasnt the motivation for the crossover voters I spoke with this week, who all said they had one reason for choosing a GOP ballot this year: Donald Trump.

Trump lost the Georgia election in 2020 by about 12,000 votes and is a subject of a Special Grand Jury investigation in Fulton County for possible election fraud after trying repeatedly to overturn the election results.

Furious at Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for not helping him with his scheme, Trump recruited primary challengers for them and other GOP officials up and down the ticket in Georgias upcoming primaries Tuesday.

Democrats, in particular, said theyve had enough and voted in the GOP primary to stop Trump one more time.

I felt very weird, but Im also really glad I did it because I really do feel like democracy is on the line, said Mitchel Boudin, a 37-year-old self-described liberal from Atlanta. Weve got people who are not committed to even upholding the democratic system.

Boudin said hes not a fan of Kemp, but voted for the governor because David Perdue has based his whole campaign around lies. I just dont know where he would take things.

Boudin also voted for Brad Raffensperger for Secretary of State.

I feel like Raffensperger, while hes from the Republican Party, I do trust he will conduct elections fairly. He took a stance and stood up for it. But Hice, he said, lies about elections and I would not trust him to administer it fairly in 2024.

Boudin plans to vote a Democratic ticket in November, but knowing Georgia is a toss-up state, he wanted to help pick the Republican nominee in case he wins in November.

Price Bliss, a Dunwoody Democrat who works in the aviation industry, said he voted for Brian Kemp in the GOP primary because of how closely has Perdue aligned himself with Trump since the election.

Perdue seems to be the bigger threat of the two, so I figured, Why not just try to make sure that he doesnt make it to the next stage? Bliss said.

But when Bliss called Perdue a threat, he didnt mean a threat to Democrats in November. He meant a threat to democracy itself.

The fact that Kemp was willing to stay within the legal bounds tells me at least somewhere theres a decent moral code, Bliss said. I just hate to think if that situation ever came up again, that Purdue may at least attempt to find a way to get around [the results] even if it wasnt necessarily legal.

Bliss said hes not 100% satisfied with the job Joe Biden is doing in the White House, but he will vote for Democrats up and down the ballot in November.

Other Democrats I spoke with said they would have voted in the Democratic primary to support Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock. But without significant competition for the partys highest-profile candidates, they wanted to make sure Trump candidates dont get past the GOP primaries.

Bob Herndon, a DeKalb Democrat, didnt vote for governor at all. Honestly, I cant vote for either one of them, he said of Kemp and Perdue.

But he voted for Raffensperger for Secretary of State.

Its really important for me to make sure that Brad Raffensperger doesnt get beaten by Jody Hice and give the Trump arm of the Republican Party access to the Secretary of States tools to throw out ballots and be dishonest, he said.

Herndon also called Gary Black an excellent Secretary of Agriculture and picked him over Herschel Walker. It just seems so unfair that, as with Trump, celebrity is more important than qualifications.

Dawn Rogers, a Republican from Woodstock told me that between gas prices and baby food shortages, said shes spoken with Democrats frustrated with their own party who voted for Kemp and Raffensperger as she did.

With David Perdue, he seemed to me to be more of a talking Trump puppet, she said. And Raffensperger, she said, Stood up for the law.

Emma in Atlanta asked that I use only her first name. She voted for Stacey Abrams in 2018 and Joe Biden in 2020, but she crossed over to vote for Kemp and Raffensperger earlier this week.

If theres anything I can do to keep Trump or his people off the ballot, Ill do it, she said.

Unlike Herndon, she said shes open to voting for Kemp and Raffensperger again in November. They both stood up to Trump, which says a lot.

The great irony of all of this is that by setting out to bring down Kemp, Raffensperger, and the rest of the GOP incumbents, Trump is daring Georgia voters, including Democrats, to defeat his allies on Tuesday the same way they did in 2020 and 2021.

Had Trump given Georgias election laws an ounce of thought, he would have seen this coming.

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OPINION: The Democrats voting in the GOP primary say its all about Donald Trump - The Atlanta Journal Constitution