# Tim Fleming Former Deputy Secretary of State of Georgia and former chief of staff to Governor [[Brian Kemp]], and the **2026 Republican nominee for Georgia Secretary of State** — the office Trump pressured over the "find 11,780 votes" call. He faces Democrat Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County Superior Court judge, on November 3, 2026. ## The 2026 primary and runoff The seat is open because [[Brad Raffensperger]] ran for governor. Fleming led the five-way May 19, 2026 Republican primary with **39.2%**, short of the majority Georgia requires, and won the **June 16 runoff 64.5–35.5** over Vernon Jones, who had said he stood with those who believe there was election fraud. The candidates he beat matter more than the margin: | Republican, May 19, 2026 | Share | Position on 2020 | |---|---|---| | Tim Fleming | 39.2% | "Irregularities" | | Vernon Jones | 27.3% | Stood with those alleging fraud | | Kelvin King | 15.9% | Said it "certainly could have been" stolen | | [[Gabriel Sterling]] | 12.0% | Said plainly the result was correct | | Ted Metz | 5.6% | "2020 had issues" | ## Record and positioning Fleming characterises 2020 as having had **"irregularities"** — language Georgia outlets describe as the formulation used by Republicans who stop short of endorsing Trump's fraud claims outright. He campaigned on voter ID and "election transparency," and sponsored legislation to dismantle Georgia's automatic voter registration. He declined the Georgia Recorder's candidate survey, so **he has no on-record answer to the direct question of whether the 2020 election was stolen.** Democracy Docket, an advocacy outlet, labels him "anti-voting"; that characterisation should be attributed to them rather than stated flatly. > [!important] What the Georgia primary settled > This race was framed for four years as the test of whether [[Election Denialism]] had a durable hold on the Georgia GOP. The answer came on one ballot: about **three-quarters of the Republican first-round vote went to candidates who cast doubt on 2020 or used "irregularities" framing**, the explicit defender of the count finished fourth with 12%, and the nomination required a runoff against an outright denier. Fleming is the median of that electorate, not its extreme — which is the point. The denial position did not have to win outright to win; it only had to make defending the count unviable. ## See Also - [[Gabriel Sterling]] — finished fourth; the institutionalist test case - [[Brad Raffensperger]] — departing incumbent, defeated in the 2026 gubernatorial primary - [[Brian Kemp]] — Fleming's former boss - [[2026 Key State Races Hub]] · [[Battleground Election Officials Hub]] - [[Election Denialism]] · [[Voter Suppression]] - [[Alexander Kolodin]] · [[Jim Marchant]] — the other 2026 Republican nominees for chief election officer in battleground states