Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood urged Georgia Republicans at a rally on Wednesday to sit out the state’s upcoming Senate runoff elections, arguing that the two Republicans in the running first needed to back demands for a special legislative session to investigate Donald Trump’s defeat in the state.
"They have not earned your vote,” Wood said of Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. “Don't you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election, for god's sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it!"
The two January 5 runoffs will decide which party ends up controlling power in the U.S. Senate. But Wood, who became celebrated on the right after representing a Covington, Kentucky Catholic student in defamation lawsuits, has repeatedly encouraged Trump supporters to boycott the race in a bid to draw attention to what he insists is massive fraud in the state’s election infrastructure.
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There is no such fraud. Georgia recounts have proven that President-elect Joe Biden won the state, and local GOP officials have urged Trump and his allies to respect that outcome. Nevertheless, Wood and other Trump activists say they want Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) to call a special session to investigate the race, a call Kemp has so far resisted.
The latest comments from Wood, which were delivered at a raucous rally, come at a time when national Republicans are growing fearful that Trumpist anger over the election results could result in a depressed turnout on January 5. Another speaker at the rally, Democratic state Rep. and Trump ally Vernon Jones, exhibited that fear by urging the crowd to vote in the runoffs. But after Jones made his plea, an unimpressed Wood said he disagreed and urged Republicans to only vote for Loeffler and Perdue if they called for a special session.
“Do not be fooled twice,” Wood said. “This is Georgia, we ain’t dumb.”
Wood appeared alongside lawyer Sidney Powell, who has won a huge following among the Trump grassroots with her repeated post-election promises to “release the Kraken” by proving Trump won the election. Powell, whose claims have been so outlandish that the Trump campaign has sought distance from her, claimed on Wednesday that the runoffs didn’t need to happen on the theory that Perdue and Loeffler cleared 50 percent during the first vote (neither did).
"I think I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure,” Powell said.
Wood also fanned dissatisfaction with the Republican Party by suggesting that it had been infiltrated by the “deep state” and alleging that both the Georgia GOP and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel have abandoned their donors by not more forcefully backing Trump’s challenge to the election results.
“If you sent any money to the Republican Party in Georgia, or you sent any money to the national Republican Party, where the hell are they?” Wood said. “Where is Ronna McDaniel?”
