Rich McCormick beats Trump-backed Jake Evans in Republican primary runoff in Georgia

Emergency room physician Rich McCormick has defeated a Donald Trump-backed attorney in Georgia’s congressional race. 

McCormick defeated Jake Evans in a Republican runoff election Tuesday, just one day after the former president held a rally supporting the attorney.

The physician, who was backed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, beat Evans by a 20-point margin. The Associated Press called the election shortly before 8.30pm.

Evans is the second Trump endorsed candidate to see defeat in the Peach State on Tuesday night.

The runoff between the pair centered on their Republican ideals, with both candidates alleging the other was not conservative enough. 

Emergency room physician Rich McCormick defeated Donald Trump-backed attorney Jake Evans in Georgia’s congressional race. He is pictured celebrating at his campaign headquarters on Tuesday

McCormick and Evans were the two top finishers in Georgia’s primary election which took place on May 24.

However, neither candidate received enough votes to reach the 50 percent threshold required to win the primary, thus triggering the runoff election.

McCormick, who secured the Republican bid for Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District on Tuesday, celebrated the victory from his campaign headquarters.

‘We’ve got a job to do…let’s start doing it,’ he said, according to Fox 5 Joi Dukes who posted a brief video clip of his speech on Twitter.

The former military pilot and emergency room physician was met with cheers and applause following his remarks.

He  previously ran for Congress in 2020. He lost the bid for the state’s Seventh Congressional District in a narrow race against Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux. 

McCormick (right) beat Evans (left) by a 20-point margin in the runoff primary race on Tuesday. The pair had been the two top finishers in Georgia’s primary election which took place on May 24 but neither had secured the 50% threshold needed to win. They are pictured during a debate on June 6

McCormick was endorsed by Cruz and a handful of Georgia congressional members, including Reps. Jody Hice, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Buddy Carter, in this latest race.

His opponent was backed by Trump. The former president held a tele-rally Monday night, calling on his supporters to vote for Evans.

‘Jake has been a fearless defender of our Constitution,’ Trump said during the event. 

‘Jake risked his entire career — he took a big risk, his entire career actually — to fight for election integrity for Pennsylvania’s illegal and unconstitutional election law changes all the way to the United States Supreme Court.’

Evans (right) was backed by former President Donald Trump (left) who called the attorney a ‘MAGA Warrior’ during a tele-rally on Monday. The pair are pictured together in an undated photo

Trump, calling Evans a ‘MAGA warrior,’ argued the Georgia lawyer would be elected to office and do an ‘incredible job.’

‘Jake will be your congressman. I think he will do an incredible job,’ the former president said Monday night. ‘The media’s been very tough on him.’

‘He’s a good person, he’s a great gentleman, and he’s got a great future, so I support Jake Evans.’

Evans, who appeared alongside Trump at the virtual event, alleged the former president’s endorsement had ‘catapulted’ his campaign.

He urged ‘every patriot’ to show up to the polls to support him in Tuesday’s race and argued that he, unlike McCormick, would fight for the people of Georgia.

‘There’s a stark contrast in this race between a strident conservative, someone that’s going to fight for you, fight against the establishment, and then there’s another candidate who is more squishy, someone who is bought out by special interests,’ Evans said.