Police received threat against Georgia candidate for governor ahead of bomb scare at campaign event

2026 ElectionPolice received threat against Georgia candidate for governor ahead of bomb scare at campaign eventBrad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, has faced threats after publicly disputing President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won Georgia in the 2020 general election.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a candidate for governor, speaks to the media and supporters at Peachtree DeKalb Airport near Atlanta on Tuesday.Megan Varner / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 12, 2026, 11:31 PM EDTBy Charlie Gile and Kyla GuilfoilATLANTA — Brad Raffensperger, a Republican candidate for governor in Georgia, said Tuesday there was an “active threat” near a planned campaign event a day after, his campaign said, authorities received a message targeting him.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.A campaign spokesperson said in a statement that the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi received a multipage manifesto Monday and that the front page had a photo of Raffensperger, who is Georgia’s secretary of state, with “boom” written across his face.Police alerted the campaign of the threat and dispatched protection for Raffensperger and his family, campaign spokesperson Ryan Mahoney said by text message, adding that it also “beefed up” security for a planned six-stop campaign tour.Earlier in the day, the Bibb County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office said officials found a “suspicious object inside of a vending machine inside a secure area” of Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon at 8:21 a.m. ET. No hazardous devices were detected during the sweep, and the airport was reopened, police said.Raffensperger’s campaign had announced a campaign stop at the airport planned for 10 a.m.“Law enforcement has a suspect and they are actively tracking that suspect,” Mahoney said. “We have not released the name of the suspect nor the contents of...