Text Message Slammed Georgia Senator for Questioning Election Results

Tricia Raffensperger, the wife of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, has been open in the past about the death threats her family faced after former President Donald J. Trump and his allies pushed false claims about a rigged election in the state.

But a newly surfaced text message from Ms. Raffensperger to Kelly Loeffler, a Republican senator of Georgia at the time, reveals that Ms. Raffensperger placed some of the blame for the death threats directly on Ms. Loeffler after the November 2020 presidential election. Ms. Raffensperger wrote Ms. Loeffler that she held her “personally responsible for anything that happens to any of my family.”

The blistering text message, which questions Ms. Loeffler’s integrity and honor, was obtained by The New York Times; its authenticity was verified on Wednesday by Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican. The message was an example of how tense relations grew, even within some Republican circles, as Mr. Trump and some of his supporters sought ways to reverse the election outcome in Georgia.

Ms. Loeffler and her fellow Georgia senator at the time, David Perdue, sparked an intraparty showdown in the state on Nov. 9, 2020, six days after Election Day, when they issued a joint statement urging Mr. Raffensperger to resign. The statement called the presidential election in Georgia an “embarrassment,” and accused Mr. Raffensperger of “mismanagement and lack of transparency.”

That same evening, Ms. Raffensperger, who tends to keep a low profile, messaged Ms. Loeffler.

“I met you at the Christmas party in Washington DC,” the text said. “Never did I think you were the kind of person to unleash such hate and fury on someone in political office of the same party.”

She and her family, she went on, were “being personally besieged by people threatening our lives because you didn’t have the decency or good manners to come and talk to my husband with any questions you may have had.”

The text continued: “Instead you have put us in the eye of the storm. Unlike you my husband is an honorable man with integrity to do the right thing. We are law abiding people of faith. I hold you personally responsible for anything that happens to any of my family, from my husband, children and grandchildren. What kind of person are you that would purposely do this? I am so disappointed, I thought you were better than that! You do not deserve to be in elected office. You are not worthy of the high calling of that position. Good day and Good night!”

The text was part of a series of messages to and from Ms. Loeffler in the weeks after the 2020 election that were leaked to The Times and other news organizations, not all of which could be immediately authenticated. Why they were compiled, and by whom, was not clear.

Ms. Loeffler, who lost a special-election runoff race in January 2021, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Ms. Loeffler is not known to be among the high-profile Republicans who have been interviewed this year by an Atlanta special grand jury investigating election interference. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has battled in court for several weeks to avoid testifying in the case.

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County who is leading the inquiry, said Ms. Willis’s office “has not released any documents related to Senator Kelly Loeffler.”

Mr. Raffensperger drew national attention for standing up to Mr. Trump after Mr. Trump personally implored him, in a January 2021 phone call, to “find” the votes to reverse the election results. In May, Mr. Raffensperger defeated a Trump-backed primary candidate, Representative Jody Hice. A poll in early September showed Mr. Raffensperger with a comfortable lead over his Democratic opponent, State Representative Bee Nguyen.

Kirsten Noyes and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.