Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan breaks ranks with GOP, supports Biden

“The best we’ve cobbled together is Donald Trump, but the reality is it’s only going to spread the infection if we don’t eliminate it now as quickly as possible,” Duncan said.

“I think we can all agree that Donald Trump is not the future of the party. There are simply different strategies to achieve this. Mine is to get him out as quickly as possible, even if that means voting for Joe Biden.”

The response from party leaders was swift.

“Every village has a useful idiot,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Trump loyalist who has feuded with his predecessor for years. “I guess the Democratic Party has found its own.”

Democrats, meanwhile, welcomed Duncan’s position, aware that Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in 2020 depended on the support of disaffected Republicans and undecided voters. With polls showing a close race, state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Dekalb, said Duncan’s views represented “moral clarity.”

Duncan’s endorsement also raised speculation that he could audition for a role as de facto GOP spokesperson for Biden, much like former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, a Democrat, played for President George W. . Bush when he delivered the opening speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

While many Georgia Republicans who have faced Trump’s wrath are reluctantly supporting him, Duncan wrote that the former president “disqualified himself by his conduct and character” by seeking to overturn his election defeat and encouraging the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. , 2021.

“Unlike Trump, I have belonged to the Republican Party my entire life,” he wrote. “In November, I am voting for an honest person with whom I disagree on policy toward a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”

Duncan, who briefly flirted with a “No Labels” presidential bid, will join the Politically Georgia podcast on WABE Tuesday at 10 a.m. to discuss his position.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

His statement marks a sharp break from Gov. Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr and other Republicans who support Trump’s re-election bid despite their personal differences. Trump recruited loyalists who unsuccessfully challenged Carr and Kemp in 2022.

Kemp, for his part, has repeatedly said he will vote for Trump in November “because he’s better than Biden” — although it’s a tenuous truce.

The governor hasn’t campaigned with Trump in four years, and the former president only abandoned his vendetta against Kemp after Trump’s hand-picked challenger was humiliated in the 2022 primaries.

Duncan’s position drew eye rolls and shrugs from leading Republicans. Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon, a former state senator who sparred with Duncan, said it wasn’t a shock.

“Literally no Republican is surprised by the former lieutenant governor’s support for Joe Biden,” he said, before referencing Duncan’s TV deal. “It must be contract renewal time at CNN.”

Trump ally and grassroots activist Debbie Dooley echoed McKoon: “The Georgia GOP has already left Duncan in 2021. That’s why he chose not to seek re-election. He knew what was going to happen.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Indeed, for Duncan observers, his position was expected. Once a Trump supporter, he became a critic of the then-president after the 2020 election and wrote a book detailing his vision for a “GOP 2.0” that goes beyond divisive rhetoric.

He is also a frequent non-conformist within his party. He refused to support Herschel Walker, the Trump-backed 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, nor did he support the campaign of Jones, his successor. Both were Trump loyalists.

And he was a key witness in the Fulton County election interference trial against Trump and his allies, testifying before a grand jury shortly before District Attorney Fani Willis announced the indictments against the former president and 18 co-defendants.

Earlier this year, he met with major donors and leaders of the No Labels movement to evaluate a possible third-party offer. But he abandoned his mandate in March, telling the AJC that “the math became too difficult personally.”

“I didn’t want to come in and be someone who barely tipped the scales one way or another and took America to where it wanted to be from a voting standpoint.”