The Georgia secretary of state’s former chief operating officer, who soared to national prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 election, is launching a bid to become the state’s next top elections official.
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who has been one of the most prominent supporters of Georgia’s Dominion Voting Systems machines, spent over six years at the secretary of state’s office, where he oversaw the implementation of the state’s $104 million voting machine system ahead of the 2020 election.
A close ally of current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Sterling made national news in 2020 after publicly calling on President Donald Trump to condemn threats to election workers after President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the general election. He filed paperwork to run for secretary of state on Tuesday, but did not reply to a request for comment.
Raffensperger has not announced his plans for 2026.
Sterling joins a growing field of Republican candidates for secretary of state, many of whom have publicly opposed the voting systems Sterling has worked to implement. State Rep. Tim Fleming, a Covington Republican who currently chairs a House “blue ribbon” committee on elections, recently co-authored a letter to Raffensperger urging him to switch from electronic voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots. Kelvin King, a former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and husband of State Election Board member Janelle King, has also called for hand-counts of ballots, citing concerns often raised by right-wing election activists about the security of voting machines.
Senate Republicans have also advanced a bill that would phase out the use of voting machines. Legislators in the House could take up the issue as soon as January.
So far, Sterling, King and Fleming are the only candidates in the race for secretary of state. No major Democratic contenders have announced their candidacy.
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