ATLANTA (AP) — A former top elections official who made a name for himself defending Georgia’s 2020 presidential election tally against threats from supporters of President Donald Trump is now running to be the state’s elections chief.

Republican Gabriel Sterling, 54, filed paperwork Tuesday to run for secretary of state and announced his candidacy Thursday.

“Georgia elections are the safest in the nation and I will fight every day to keep it that way,” Sterling said in a statement.

Sterling was for six years the right-hand man of Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger until resigning recently. Trump famously asked Raffensperger in a telephone call to help “find” enough votes to overturn the Republican’s loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.

Sterling’s entry is the clearest

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