South Fulton Today

The hope to block former President Trump-backed candidates from winning in state elections is driving an increasing number of Georgia Democrats to vote in the GOP primaries.

In a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta, Georgia Democrat Diane Murray said that while she struggled with her decision all the way up to Election Day, her vote for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger came in order to prevent a Trump-backed election denier from becoming the battleground state’s election chief.  

"I feel strongly that our democracy is at risk, and that people who are holding up the big lie, as we call it, and holding onto the former president are dangerous to democracy," Murray, who works at the University of Georgia, told FOX 5 Atlanta. "I don’t know I’ll do it again because of how I felt afterward. I just felt icky.”

According to the report, based on early voting data alone, 37,144 voters who previously voted Democrat voted in the Republican primary. As a result, Raffensperger avoided a runoff by just over 27,000 votes in a race where at least 50% of the vote is required to be declared the winner.

The voting in Georgia reflects a trend in crossover voting across the nation, as voters across the political spectrum hope to stop Trump-backed candidates from winning control on state and federal levels, the report states. Despite the former president rallying against the practice in recent weeks, FOX 5 reports there is nothing wrong with crossover voting, with many states making it both easy and legal for voters to participate in either party’s primary.