Georgia Election Board Member Denies Asking for Trump White House Role

A Republican member of Georgia’s State Election Board has denied claims that he sought a role in a second Donald Trump administration.
Former state Senator Rick Jeffares is among three pro-Trump members on the five-person regulatory board who believe that Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election against Joe Biden because of voter fraud, an unsubstantiated claim.
On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that Jeffares, while speaking to former Trump aide Brian Jack, put himself forward for the job of regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency, should Trump win November’s election.
“I said if y’all can’t figure out who you want to be the EPA director for the south-east, I’d like to have it,” Jeffares said, the outlet reported. “That’s all I said.”
The report caused outrage in Georgia, with calls for Jeffares to resign. The claims that Jeffares sought a role in Trump’s administration also led to allegations of corruption, given Jeffares’ role on the State Election Board, which has recently passed a number of votes thought to favor Trump in Georgia.
During a recent campaign rally in Atlanta, Trump name-checked Jeffares and two other election board members—Janelle King and Janice Johnston—after the board passed a new rule that gave them the ability to delay the certification of election results unless a “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancies was fully resolved.
Jeffares, who told The Guardian that he now believed Trump fairly lost Georgia in the 2020 election, has denied that he tried to land himself a job at the EPA next year.
Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jeffares said he turned down the EPA job during Trump’s first term in office. He added he told friends that he’d consider the job now, but that he never formally asked for it.
“I didn’t talk to anyone in the Trump administration. It’s been a hardship on us ever since Trump mentioned us at the rally,” he said.
“How the rumor got started that I would join the administration is beyond me. It’s all just to make us look like criminals. I have emails and voicemail messages that would make you blush.”
Speaking to the Georgia news outlet 11Alive, Jeffares added: “Y’all have taken a nothing story and blown it up. Done with media. It’s d**n ridiculous.”
Newsweek has contacted Jeffares’ office for further comment.
Johnston, Jeffares and King all voted in favor of the law change allowing the board to initiate a “reasonable inquiry” when alleged voting discrepancies emerge.
Charles S. Bullock, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia, told Newsweek that the rule and its vague “reasonable inquiry” wording could allow board officials to refuse to certify an election if they “don’t like the results.”
The board also recently voted to ask Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to reinvestigate the Fulton County government over its handling of the 2020 vote count.
Trump and several of his allies are facing trial after being charged on allegations that they illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Democratic state Representative Saira Draper suggested Jeffares should resign if he is seeking jobs in a Trump administration while working on Georgia’s election board.
“The public has to ask, are you taking these actions, are you making these policies because it’s going to have an impact that’s going to benefit you financially?” Draper told 11Alive.
On X, formerly Twitter, Max Flugrath of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights advocacy group in Georgia, wrote, “Jeffares’s suggestion of himself for a specific job in another potential Trump administration while serving on Georgia’s election board, and passing new election rules supported by Trump, reeks of corruption.”