Geoff Duncan, the lieutenant governor of Georgia, called Trump's strategy "unwinnable" going forward

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Georgia's GOP lieutenant governor rules out Senate run but says 'Trump's divisive tone and strategy is unwinnable' for the future of the Republican party

By Connor Perrett




Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, said Sunday the strategy that propelled Trump to the nation's highest office in 2016 wouldn't work for Republicans moving forward.

"Republicans don't need election reform to win, we need leadership," Duncan said during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. "I think there's millions of Republicans waking up around the country that are realizing that Donald Trump's divisive tone and strategy is unwinnable in forward-looking elections.

"We need real leadership, we need new focus, a GOP 2.0 that includes moderates in the middle, to get us to the next election cycle," he added.

Duncan said Trump's refusal to concede the election and continued spread of unfounded conspiracy theories about the election did damage to the GOP.

"It hurt Republicans in any sort of conversation around election reform," he said. "We lost credibility. Those were 10 weeks that we can't take back. January 6th was a pivot point for this country and for this party. And, look, we've got four years to win back the White House. We're not going to do it with a divisive tone."

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Ducan told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that he had been "disgusted" by the former president's phone call with Georgia's secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, in which Trump asked him to "find" the needed votes to overturn President Joe Biden's win in the state.

The Fulton County district attorney in February announced she had opened a criminal investigation into Trump's attempts to interfere in the Georgia election.

"We had played for almost 10 weeks with President Trump and his entire apparatus attacking us here for running a fair and legal election," Duncan said of Trump's attacks on Georgia officials in the final months of his presidency.

He said he would "stay out of the way of the law and let them do their job" during the investigation into his conduct.

Also during his Sunday appearance, Duncan said he had ruled out a rumored run for US Senate next year.

"My family and I have talked about it, and we're not going to run for the US Senate seat," he said. "We're going to stay focused on being the lieutenant governor here in Georgia. And we're going to focus hard on trying to rebuild this party and refocus GOP 2.0."

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