Georgia Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brad Raffensperger was forced to evacuate a campaign event in Macon on Tuesday after authorities received a credible bomb threat. The incident unfolded at Middle Georgia Regional Airport, where a suspicious object was found inside a vending machine in a secure area.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office reported that the bomb squad secured the object for examination, and after a thorough sweep of the airport, no hazardous devices were detected. Raffensperger, his staff, and attendees were evacuated during the search.
This threat came just one day after the Clay County Sheriff's Office in Mississippi disclosed that they had received a multipage manifesto featuring Raffensperger's face with the word "boom" superimposed on the image, as reported by NBC. Campaign spokesperson Ryan Mahoney confirmed that law enforcement has identified a suspect and is actively pursuing them, though no name or details of the manifesto's contents have been released.
Mahoney stated, "We have not released the name of the suspect nor the contents of the manifesto yet." It remains unclear whether Tuesday's bomb threat is connected to the manifesto.
Raffensperger has faced intense criticism in recent years for rejecting former President Donald Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election. This political context has heightened security concerns around his campaign.
In a campaign release, Mahoney said, "At this time, we cannot release the handwritten manifesto that triggered this security response, nor can we confirm any connection between that threat and Tuesday's bomb scare at the Macon airport during the Secretary's visit. Additional details will be released as they become available."
Mahoney also told NBC that security would be "beefed up" for the remaining six campaign stops. Despite the scare, Raffensperger addressed voters on the tarmac in Macon and proceeded with his scheduled events, including a stop at DeKalb Peachtree Airport to speak with residents ahead of next week's primary.
"We're not going to be deterred. If we got to, you know, change a little bit, we're still moving forward," Raffensperger said at the DeKalb airport. "You know, we are focused on what we're going to do for the people of Georgia and no one's going to push us off that at the end of the day."
The incident underscores the heightened security risks facing election officials who have stood up to election fraud claims, a pattern seen in other states as well, such as the recent ouster of Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen in a GOP primary upset.
