defied

ATLANTA — Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state who rejected Donald Trump’s call to help overturn the state’s 2020 election results, said Wednesday that he’s running for governor in 2026.

The wealthy engineering entrepreneur might appeal most to business-oriented Republicans who once dominated GOP primaries in Georgia, but he is pledging a strongly conservative campaign even while he remains scorned by Trump and his allies. Raffensperger’s entry into the field intensifies the primary in a state with an unbroken line of Republican governors since 2002.

“I’m a conservative Republican, and I’m prepared to make the tough decisions. I follow the law and the Constitution, and I’ll always do the right thing for Georgia no matter what,” Raffensperger said in an announcement video.

Raffensperger defied Trump’s wrath to win reelection in 2022, but he will again test GOP primary voters’ tolerance for a candidate so clearly targeted by the president. His first challenge may be to even qualify for the primary. Georgia’s Republican Party voted in June to ban Raffensperger from running under its banner, although the party chairman said that attempt might not go anywhere.

Two other top Republicans are already in the race — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Atty. Gen. Chris Carr. Jones swore himself to be a “duly elected and qualified” elector for Trump in 2020 even though Democrat Joe Biden had been declared the state’s winner. Carr sided with Raffensperger in rejecting challenges to the results. Other Republicans include Clark Dean, Scott Ellison and Gregg Kirkpatrick.

On the Democratic side, top candidates include former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. Geoff Duncan, who like Raffensperger spurned Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election as Republican lieutenant governor, entered the governor’s race Tuesday as a Democrat.

In the national spotlight

Raffensperger spent most of his first two years in office battling lawsuits filed by Democrats that fruitlessly alleged Georgia, under then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, engaged in illegal voter suppression in 2018 in Kemp’s victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams. Raffensperger also was tasked to roll out new Dominion voting machines for a 2020 election thrown off-kilter by the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden’s narrow win in Georgia changed things. Raffensperger said publicly that he wished Trump had won, but firmly held that he saw no evidence of widespread fraud or voting irregularities. Trump and his partisans ratcheted up attacks.

In his 2021 book, “Integrity Counts,” Raffensperger recounted death threats texted to his wife, an encounter with men whom he suspected of staking out his home, and being escorted out of the Georgia Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a handful of protesters entered the building on the day many more protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

But it was a phone call days earlier, on Jan. 2, that wrote Raffensperger’s name into history. Trump pressured the secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” — enough to overturn Biden’s win in the state, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials didn’t change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.

Raffensperger pushed back, noting that lawsuits making those claims had been fruitless.

“We don’t agree that you have won,” Raffensperger told Trump.

Amy writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Air Canada on Sunday delayed plans to resume limited operations after flight attendants defied a government-mandated back-to-work order and binding arbitration.

Limited service instead will resume on Monday night, the airline said in a news release Sunday.

Flight attendants with Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge originally were ordered to return to shifts by 2 p.m. Sunday, CBC reported.

The 10,000 flight attendants remain on strike, which began after midnight Saturday.

“We invite Air Canada back to the table to negotiate a fair deal, rather than relying on the federal government to do their dirty work for them when bargaining gets a little bit tough,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement.

“We have received overwhelming support from the public and Union workers everywhere,” the union posted on Facebook. “This is an historic moment for labor and for workers across the country.”

CUPE National President Mark Hancock ripped up the order Sunday in front of a cheering crowd outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

“We will continue to fight on the picket lines, on the streets, at the bargaining table, in the courts, and in Parliament, until the injustice of unpaid work is done for good,” he said Saturday in a union news release. “Workers will win — despite the best effort of the Liberal government and their corporate friends.”

On Saturday, 12 hours after the strike, Jobs Minister Patty Haju invoked Section 107 of the Canadian Labor Code, which directs the Canadian Relations Board to arbitrate the dispute and extended the terms of the existing agreement until a new one is determined by an arbiter. The contract expired on March 31.

“We will be challenging this blatantly unconstitutional order that violates the Charter rights of 10,000 flight attendants, 70 percent of whom are women, and 100 percent of whom are forced to do hours of unpaid work by their employer every time they come to work,” the union said in a statement.

Air Canada said the union “illegally directed its flight attendants to defy a direction” from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to return to work.

The carrier said it planned to resume approximately 240 of its normal 700 flights a day, though it would take seven to 10 days for the schedule to “stabilize.”

More than 130,000 travelers worldwide fly on the airline daily.

Canada’s largest airline includes 170 international ones, and from 50 Canadian airports. Between more than 50 U.S. airports and Canada, the company averages about 430 daily flights.

Air Canada Express, with 300 regional flights, is operated by Jazz Aviation and PAl Airlines, is not affected.

Customers will be notified about canceled flights and are strongly advised not to go the airport unless they have confirmed flights on other airlines.

Those on canceled flights can obtain a full refund or receive a credit for future travel.

Also, the carrier will offer to rebook customers on other carriers, although capacity is limited because of the peak summer travel season.

Flight attendants went on strike at 12:58 a.m. EDT Saturday and the company locked them out at 1:30 a.m.

The flight attendants and their supporters were on picket lines throughout Canada.

The last negotiations were on Friday night, and no new talks were scheduled.

“Air Canada and CUPE flight attendants are at an impasse and remain unable to resolve their dispute,” she said in a statement released Saturday afternoon Eastern time. “Canadians are increasingly finding themselves in very difficult situations and the strike is rapidly impacting the Canadian economy.”

“This decision will help make sure that hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are not impacted because of cancelled flights. Further, the shipments of critical goods such as pharmaceuticals and organ tissue, over 40% of which are moved by Air Canada, should continue to reach their destinations,” she said.

On Wednesday, the airline served the union a statutory 72-hour lockout notice in response to the union’s 72-hour strike notice.

Air Canada was canceling flights ahead of the work stoppage.

“I don’t think anyone’s in the mood to go back to work,” Lillian Speedie, vice president of CUPE Local 4092, told CBC at a picket line outside Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga on Sunday. “To legislate us back to work 12 hours after we started? I’m sorry, snowstorms have shut down Air Canada for longer than we were allowed to strike.”

The Air Canada union asked the jobs minister to direct the parties to enter into binding arbitration.

But on Saturday afternoon, the union blasted the order to end the strike and posted images and video strikers. More visuals were posted Sunday.

“This sets a terrible precedent. Contrary to the Minister’s remarks, this will not ensure labor peace at Air Canada,” the union said Saturday.

Air Canada has become dependent on the federal government to solve its labor-relations issues, Steven Tufts, associate professor and labour geographer at York University, told CBC.

“Air Canada has to learn not to call mommy and daddy every time they reach an impasse at the bargaining table,” Tufts said. “They have to actually sit down and get a deal done with their workers.”

In 2024, Air Canada asked for the government to be ready to step in but the two sides reached a tentative agreement.

Flight attendants want to be compensated for work before the flights take off and after they land. Typically with most airlines, they get paid only for the hours they are in the air.