Donald Trump endorses challenger for Georgia. Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger

U.S. former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed a GOP primary challenger to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He did this in order to seek revenge on Republicans who opposed his efforts to overturn his election loss.

Trump said in a statement that U.S. Representative Jody Hice, R-Ga., “will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!’’ He is a four-term congressman from northeast Georgia who has echoed Trump’s election complaints. Trump and allies have repeatedly stated, without evidence, that there was voter fraud in Georgia and other states won by President Joe Biden.

In endorsing Hice, Trump again served notice that he will insert himself into Republican primaries. He will do so even at the risk of splitting the party ahead of important general elections – and even in Georgia, where he is under investigation for pressuring Raffensperger and other Georgia election officials over the 2020 results.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger in a January phone call taped by Georgia officials.

Amidst various reviews, Raffensperger said the election in Georgia was fairly conducted.

Trump said in January, “We know that we have followed the law, we have followed the Constitution.”

Trump has also vowed to back a primary opponent against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, another Republican who stood behind the state’s voting process amid the president’s complaints.

Trump plans to be heavily involved in 2022 congressional and state elections, though his actions may wind up splitting up the Republican party as it tries to regain control of Congress and preserve important state offices.

In addition to his threats against Georgia Republicans, Trump has vowed to back primary challengers against GOP members of Congress who went against him on impeachment.

Hice, who first won election to the U.S. House in 2014, was among the twelve congressional Republicans who questioned the counting of electoral votes, the event that preceded the insurrection.

In announcing his plans to challenge Raffensperger, Hice said the current secretary of state-created “cracks in the integrity of our elections, which I wholeheartedly believe individuals took advantage of in 2020.”

Trump’s complaints about the election in Georgia have already had an impact in Georgia, with national consequences.