He did it by meeting skeptical voters head-on, appearing regularly on conservative media and touting his support for conservative election policies. Raffensperger spent long hours on the road to talk to basically any group that would have him — even when they wanted to relitigate the 2020 vote that Raffensperger has consistently defended as clean and fair.

And, spotting an opening at the end of a primary many assumed would go to a runoff, Raffensperger and an allied super PAC poured in resources when his challengers started to coast, pushing hard all the way through the election, which he won with 52 percent of the vote. Altogether, it added up to the biggest GOP rebuke of Trump since the day 10 House Republicans voted to impeach him.

“What I believed in my heart of hearts is that they were not seeing what I was seeing,” Raffensperger said. “I believe that people are good, and people are looking for good people that do the right thing. And last night, I was proven right: That people in Georgia aren’t just good. People in Georgia are wonderful.”