Democrats in Georgia who voted in the Republican primary last week helped Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger win the Republican primary against former President Donald Trump's wishes.

More than 37,000 people who voted in the state's Democratic primary in 2020 voted in the Republican primary that saw the defeat of several of Trump's hand-picked candidates, an Associated Press analysis of early voting records found. Raffensperger, who was facing a primary from Trump-backed challenger Rep. Jody Hice, avoided a runoff by about 27,000 votes. Raffensperger beat Hice in the Republican secretary of state primary 52%-34%, with other GOP candidates taking the rest.

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The number of crossover votes was unusually high, though not enough to have affected Gov. Brian Kemp's blowout victory over Trump's endorsed candidate, Sen. David Perdue. Raffensperger's camp said he too was renominated by Republicans, not Democrats.

“It is clear that Brad Raffensperger carried a majority of the Republican vote here in the state of Georgia and that there are people who stopped voting in Republican primaries after 2016 who are now reengaged,” campaign consultant Jordan Fuchs told the AP.

Trump himself wasn't pleased with the push to oust his candidates using Democratic votes, telling supporters in Wyoming over the weekend: "Don’t let the Democrats do what they did in another state last week.”

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) pushed to defeat Trump-backed candidates by encouraging Democrats to vote in Republican primaries through his group Country First, a coalition of Never Trumpers from across the political spectrum. They sent mailers and text messages to likely voters, urging them to vote against Trump's candidates in races across the country. Kinzinger told the AP that they are planning to use the same strategy in Michigan, Wyoming, and Alaska.

Trump has a mixed bag in terms of his endorsements this campaign cycle. His Georgia Senate pick, Herschel Walker, handily won the nomination, as did most of his House picks.

Raffensperger now faces reelection in November against a Democratic rival who has not yet emerged from a close primary, with the ballots continuing to be counted and reviewed.