Suspicious object disrupts Raffensperger campaign stop at Georgia airport

A suspicious object inside a vending machine shut down Brad Raffensperger’s campaign stop in Macon and forced an evacuation at Middle Georgia Regional Airport just hours before the Republican secretary of state was set to speak.

Bibb County emergency dispatch was notified at about 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, May 12, 2026, of a suspicious device at the airport. Deputies and the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad responded, and investigators later found the object in a secure area of the airport. Raffensperger’s appearance was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. as part of his statewide six-city “Standing for Georgia” fly-around tour.

Officials evacuated the airport while the area was checked. No hazardous device was detected, no injuries were reported, and the airport and surrounding area reopened shortly afterward. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation would handle the investigation.

The disruption briefly stalled a campaign meant to project momentum in the final stretch before Georgia’s May 19 Republican primary for governor. Raffensperger, one of several Republicans in the race, has spent years under political attack from Donald Trump supporters after refusing to help overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. That history has made every public appearance a security-sensitive event, and Tuesday’s evacuation showed how quickly campaign travel can turn into a law-enforcement response.

His campaign described the episode as an “active threat,” and Raffensperger said he would “not back down” and would continue his campaign. The language reflected the increasingly fraught environment surrounding statewide politics in Georgia, where candidates now move under the shadow of threats, alarms and rapid evacuations as often as they do under the pressure of polling and endorsements.

For Raffensperger, the airport scare was not just a logistical interruption. It was a test of whether a candidate targeted for his role in the 2020 election fallout can keep campaigning normally while local authorities and state investigators work through a security incident that rattled a public venue in one of the state’s busiest political weeks.