Two GOP Delegates Legally Challenge Raffensperger’s Qualification in Republican Primary, Claiming “Illegal” and “Abuse of Authority”

Atlanta, GA — On Friday, two Republican Party members, Harvey Wysong from Whitfield County and Brandyn James from Catoosa County filed a legal challenge to the Republican Party’s qualification of current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s candidacy for Governor. The challenge is based on the motion passed by the Georgia Republican Party state convention last Summer that officially instructed party employees and officers to not allow Brad Raffensperger to qualify for office on the Republican primary ballot. Brandyn James is a 31-year-old African-American and Harvey Wysong is a retired Marine veteran. Both are Republican activists from Northwest Georgia.

The challenge states “The qualification of Brad Raffensperger as a Republican candidate by Georgia Republican Party staff or officers was arbitrary, characterized by an abuse of discretion…”

“The Georgia Republican Party has a constitutional right to associate with whom it wishes, especially who it qualifies to run as a candidate for public office through its party ballot access. As a corollary, the Georgia Republican Party has a constitutional right not to associate with Brad Raffensperger. The actions of the staff or officers of the Georgia Republican Party have violated the Georgia Republican’s Party right of association.“

“I hope that this challenge results in the overturning of Mr. Raffensperger’s qualification,” said Brandyn James.

Georgia law § 21-2-5 requires this challenge to be considered by the Secretary of State, and then the elector may appeal that decision to a judge.

Some would suggest this effort is futile since Brad Raffensperger is both the candidate in question, and the government official being appealed to for remedy, and he is unlikely to disqualify his own candidacy for Governor. One would hope that an elected official who wants to operate with integrity would recuse himself from deciding a challenge involving his own candidacy (or that of his rival), due to his conflict of interest, and defer the question to another authority.

Wysong and James see this challenge to be the first step in the legal process, and probably want to be able to use this challenge as proof that they pursued all their options in search of a remedy.

“There’s a Latin maxim, ‘Non se jugulabit porcus,’ meaning, a hog won’t butcher itself,” said Wysong. “If that happens, we’ll have to turn elsewhere for relief. We knew that at the outset.”

Brandyn James has been a supporter of Catoosa GOP and enjoyed a front row seat to their legal battle for freedom of association these last two years.

“To those who say that this effort is futile, I simply ask: if not now, then when? If not us, then who?” said James.

Election integrity has become a central goal and major priority of the Republican Party of Georgia as evidenced by the numerous resolutions passed by party delegates at various levels over the last 5 years.

Brad Raffensperger has a record of opposing basic election integrity policies that Republicans have been clamoring for in their resolutions and goals. He actively resisted attempts to audit other races when the Dominion Voting System declared the wrong winners in the 2022 Dekalb District 2 Commission primary.

He filed an Amicus Brief in the Fulton County counterfeit ballot case to prevent citizen plaintiffs from examining the ballots.

Raffensperger also allowed Zuckerberg’s CTCL to provide $45 Million dollars, called “Zuckerbucks” in politically partisan funds to Georgia’s counties.

He employed Voting Works, a company receiving funds from George Soros, to conduct the hand count audit of the 2020 Presidential election.

The list of Raffensperger’s infuriating betrayals of the Republican Party is lengthy. It is no wonder delegates at the 2025 state GOP convention were willing to take such an extreme measure as to ban him from running for any office on the Republican primary ballot again.

The resolution passed by the GOP delegates stated:

“It is resolved that the Georgia Republican Party shall not qualify, allow to be qualified, or take any action to allow Brad Raffensperger to qualify as a Republican or run for any elected office unless and until a GAGOP Convention removes this restriction; and,

“Be it further resolved that the Georgia Republican Party shall fully defend against any future litigation or legal action taken by Brad Raffensperger or others that in any way claims that the Georgia Republican Party is or can be required to allow Brad Raffensperger to run for public office as a Republican.”

James and Wysong argue in their candidate challenge that qualifying Brad Raffensperger with the “Republican” label is “misleading the public.”

Furthermore they write: “If non-republicans use the Georgia Republican Party brand in their quest for political power, and regularly betray the party’s principles and interests, it hurts all Republican candidates.”

The complaint cites both the official Rules of the Georgia Republican Party as well as Roberts Rules of Order. The challenges argued that the staff and/or officers of the GAGOP did not posses the authority to certify Raffensperger and violated the chain of command specified in the Rules of the Georgia Republican Party – Rule 2.1.

Both Wysong and James mention in the complaint that they were among the duly qualified delegates who served in the 2025 Georgia Republican Party State Convention, and voted with the majority to prevent Brad Raffensperger from being allowed to qualify as a Republican in future primaries.

“This fact undergirds my standing to make this legal complaint,” they say.

While some have suggested that resolutions are not binding and are mere toothless “expressions of sentiment”, Roberts Rules of Order says differently. Roberts Rules of Order section 4:4 says clearly that resolutions are motions and binding. “For more important or complex questions, or when greater formality is desired, he presents the motion in the form of a resolution. . .”

The candidate challenge says: “By ignoring these rules of the Georgia Republican Party and working in concert with the state government to qualify Brad Raffensperger, they have done exactly what is forbidden by the Rules of the Georgia Republican Party and the First Amendment – namely, forcing the Georgia Republican Party to associate with a candidate that it did not want and who does not uphold its values.”