I’m Voting for Brad Raffensperger on May 19. Hear Me Out.

"This isn’t about becoming MAGA. It’s about using Georgia’s open primary system to keep the worst version of Trumpism out of the governor’s mansion."

by Ken Oswald "__yak" Vann, Jr.

Monday 11 May 2026

I know this is going to make some people look at me with the side eye, but hear me out.

Georgia’s governor race is not just about party loyalty. It is about who controls state power when Washington starts applying pressure.

People need to look at this Georgia governor’s race is not just Democrat versus Republican. That is the version for the not-so intellectually inclined, the poorly educated as some might say. That is the version they give people when they want us emotional, predictable, and easy to manage.

This is about using your vote as leverage.

Georgia’s open primary system means the first question is not party identity. It is where your vote does the most work.

Quiet as kept, if we are being honest, Georgia is one of the few states where leverage is still sitting out in the open. We do not register by party here. That means I can look at the board and decide where my vote does the most work in the primary, instead of acting like I owe one party my ballot because the internet trained everybody to confuse strategy with betrayal.

So yes, I am looking at the Republican primary.

Not because I woke up MAGA. Chill. I have not been baptized in the red pill Kool-Aid.

I am looking because the Republican side is wide open enough for leverage to matter. Rick Jackson and Burt Jones are fighting at the top, both jumping at the chance to bend over for the demented demon pedophile commander-in-chief. Raffensperger is not leading. I know that. He is somehow sitting behind them. But there are still enough undecided Republican primary voters floating around to make this more than a coronation.

And that matters because I am not just asking who can win.

I am asking who can be trusted not to turn Georgia into a Trump enforcement office and the streets of Atlanta into this administration's latest domestic battlefield.

That is where Brad Raffensperger becomes interesting to me.

Not perfect. Not my dream candidate. Not somebody I agree with on everything. But he was tested on the one issue that revealed a lot of people’s character: Trump wanted Georgia’s election reality bent into something useful for him, and Raffensperger did not bend.

That is not small. Especially when the rest of the party in lining up for the opportunity just to get a whiff of Trump's old man balls.

Most politicians are brave right up until bravery costs them something. Then suddenly they start speaking fluent press release — “concerns,” “process,” “moving forward,” all that pussy-shit people use when they do not want to say they folded.

Raffensperger did not fold in that moment.

The question is not whether a politician is perfect. The question is what they do when the room gets hot.

So if I am pulling a Republican primary ballot, that is the logic. Not romance. Not loyalty. Risk management.

Keisha Lance Bottoms may still be where I land in the general election. I can see that clearly. If November becomes Bottoms versus some Trump-aligned candidate with better branding and a Georgia accent, then yes, I am probably looking hard at Bottoms.

But the primary is not the general.

Bottoms already has the clearest lane on the Democratic side. She is ahead, she has name recognition, and the rest of that field is trying to figure out how to catch her. My vote in that primary might make me feel ideologically tidy, but I am not convinced it does the most work.

Sometimes the move is not where your heart feels cleanest, as much as where the floor is weakest.

And Geoff Duncan? I am skeptical.

Anti-Trump branding is not a governing philosophy. It is the beginning of the interview, not the end of it.

I understand the packaging. Former Republican. Anti-Trump. Calm voice. Moderate haircut. Very “grown-up in the room,” very brunch-friendly, very cable-news comfortable.

Cool. Cool.

But I need more than a rebrand. Sometimes people leave a burning house because they finally smelled smoke. Sometimes they leave because the insurance check cleared. I am not saying which one he is. I am saying I am watching. Being against Trump is necessary, but it can't be your whole governing philosophy.

What are you doing about rent? What are you doing about insurance? What are you doing about hospitals? What are you doing about regular people getting priced out of Georgia while everybody keeps bragging about growth?

Because that is the issue underneath all the noise.

Affordability.

Georgia keeps selling growth like everybody gets a plate. A lot of people are still outside smelling somebody else’s dinner.

Georgia keeps selling growth like everybody gets a plate, but a whole lot of people are just standing outside smelling somebody else’s dinner. Atlanta grows. Suburbs sprawl. Developers get richer. Politicians cut ribbons. Working people check their bank accounts like maybe the money is hiding behind the app.

That is not prosperity.

That is extraction with better lighting, and Black voters in Georgia need to move like we understand exactly how much power we have.

Growth without affordability is not prosperity. It is extraction with better lighting.

We are not some side bloc. We are not a “turnout operation.” We are not the choir they bring out three weeks before Election Day to put rhythm behind a weak campaign.

Black Georgians are roughly a third of the state’s population and about a third of eligible voters. That is not decorative. That is structural, and people in power know that too.

So the game becomes making Black voters feel tired, boxed in, diluted, symbolic, or late to the table. That is how you suppress people without always needing to block the door. You just convince them the room was never built for them, and the turnout gap tells the story without needing to scream.

If Black turnout in Georgia matched white turnout, hundreds of thousands more Black ballots would be in the system. That's right, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.

Black voters are not a turnout accessory. In Georgia, Black voters are structural power.

That is not a footnote. That is a political earthquake sitting on the couch. So the strategy cannot just be “vote blue” or “stop Trump” or “save democracy.” Some of that is true, but slogans do not organize anybody by themselves. Slogans do not explain open primaries, print sample ballots, call young Black men who feel ignored, or talk to rural Black voters before a consultant suddenly needs margins.

We need a Georgia strategy.

Primaries. Runoffs. Local races. Judges. Sheriffs. School boards. County commissions. District attorneys. State legislature. The boring offices. The offices nobody posts about until something goes wrong.

That is where life happens.

The boring offices are where life happens. That is why they hope you skip them.

That is also how gerrymandering gets fought — not only in court, but through relentless participation in every race they hope we skip.

Gerrymandering is not just lines on a map. It is psychology. It is designed to make people feel outnumbered before they even vote. It is like somebody rigging the scoreboard, telling you that your thirty-foot jumper is only worth one point when you make it, but three points when they score from the free throw line.

Gerrymandering is not just geography. It is psychology with a map attached.

You still gotta put up your shot. You can't win if you don't shoot...you just gotta start playing harder defense. You bring more shooters with you. Then you fix the scoreboard for the next game.

That is where I am with this race.

For me, Raffensperger in the Republican primary may be the safer institutional bet. Bottoms in the general may still be the move if the alternative is Trumpism with a peach flavor. Duncan still has to prove he is more than a well-timed political conversion, if he's not there just to split the vote.

Black voters in Georgia need to move like we understand the numbers without letting the numbers flatten us.

We are not a garnish, a rescue squad, or inherited property for any party.

Georgia needs voters to be strategic, not steadfast devotees.

Georgia does not need voters performing blind loyalty.

Georgia needs voters using their vote as leverage.

That is the whole game.