Republican Rep. Tim Fleming of Covington has become the first candidate to launch a bid for Georgia secretary of state in 2026. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
State Rep. Tim Fleming, a Covington Republican, has become the first candidate to launch a bid for secretary of state, seeking to replace Brad Raffensperger as Georgia’s top election official.
“Yesterday, I took the necessary steps to formally begin preparing a campaign for Georgia Secretary of State,” Fleming wrote in a post on Facebook Thursday.
“An official announcement will be made at the appropriate time, but in the meantime, I look forward to continuing meaningful conversations with Georgians across this great state about the challenges we face and the future we can build together with strong conservative leadership,” he added.
The secretary of state is responsible for overseeing elections across the state, granting business licenses for a variety of professions, and managing Georgia’s securities market. The role soared to new prominence after the 2020 presidential election, when Raffensperger, a Republican, resisted pressure from President Donald Trump to overturn Georgia’s election results in his favor.
In the years since, the Republican-controlled state Legislature and State Election Board have sought to strip power from the office, removing Raffensperger from his former position as chair of the State Election Board before ousting him from the board altogether. The Georgia GOP has also imposed sanctions on Raffensperger, passing a resolution to ban him from qualifying as a Republican in future elections.
Raffensperger, who first became secretary of state in 2019, has not announced whether he intends to run again for the seat in 2026. But Fleming, a business owner and outspoken supporter of the president, may be positioning himself to be a more Trump-aligned alternative. Raffensperger beat a Trump-backed challenger in 2022.
First elected to represent Georgia House District 114 in 2022, Fleming previously worked as Gov. Brian Kemp’s chief of staff. According to his campaign website, he also served as deputy secretary of state under Kemp, who was Georgia’s top election official from 2010 until 2018.
Fleming has helped shape election policy in his brief time in the General Assembly. During his first term in the Legislature, he successfully passed House Bill 1207, a bill initially aimed at revising ballot proofing procedures for local superintendents. However, it was later amended to include language from Senate Bill 221, a controversial elections bill that failed to pass during the 2023 legislative session. Among other changes, the legislation required all election workers to be U.S. citizens, outlined protections for poll watchers and eliminated the requirement for polling places to maintain a ratio of one voting machine for every 250 voters. The governor signed HB 1207 into law in May 2024.
Earlier this year, Fleming also introduced a controversial election bill that would prohibit Georgia from sharing voter information with third-party groups like the Electronic Registration Information Center, limit voters’ ability to drop off absentee ballots on the final weekend before Election Day and expand poll-watching areas, among other provisions. The bill successfully passed through both chambers, but failed to gain final passage before the Legislature adjourned.
He was also appointed to lead this year’s House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures, which is expected to evaluate Georgia’s current election policies and provide recommendations for new election laws ahead of Georgia’s 2026 legislative session. The study committee will hold its first meeting in Atlanta on July 15.
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This post was originally authored and published by Maya Homan from Georgia Recorder via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
