Vernon Jones grabs his lance and hops on his pony — once again

Two years later, he ran for Congress in his own backyard in DeKalb against incumbent Hank Johnson. He got stomped 2-1.

He raised his hand in 2012 to return to the state House, where he served for most of the 1990s but backed out of the race. Two years later, he ran against DeKalb’s uninspiring sheriff, Jeff Mann, saying Mann was a puppet controlled by white power brokers. Vern lost worse this time, 3-1, defeated roundly by voters who knew him well.

Out of other political options and he turned to the state House, again in 2016 and served a couple terms. But by 2020, he rankled his Dem colleagues so much and, knowing he’d lose, he backed out of his run and threw himself in with Donald Trump’s re-election.

Jones tried a run in the 2022 Republican primary for Georgia governor but stepped aside to let Trump lackey David Perdue have a (very unsuccessful) go at incumbent Brian Kemp. Instead, Jones ran against Mike Collins, a real conservative, and, despite Trump’s blessing, got beat again, 3-1.

One thing I can say for Vern is he did make it to the runoffs in the 2008 Senate race, the 2014 sheriff’s race and his 2022 congressional quest before getting clobbered each time. That means his name recognition gets him votes. But when voters have a clear-eyed choice between him and somebody else, they’ll click “somebody else.”

So, that brings us to the present. Vernon has announced he’s running for secretary of state.

That office was long fairly obscure but seen as a stepping stone to higher office. In recent years, it’s become the vortex of an endless squabble surrounding elections.

Jones is now relitigating that 2020 election because, well, why not? Trump keeps doing it, even though not many others care. Except the most ardent and conspiratorial MAGAs, that is.

An AJC poll last year found that 92% of Georgia voters surveyed were either very confident or somewhat confident their ballots were counted correctly. In fact, nearly 98% of self-identified Republicans said they were cool with the most recent election. And why not? They rolled.

Sterling, who is also running for the job, was the face of the office in 2020, answering questions, debunking conspiracy theories and even calling out Trump.

Also in the GOP primary are state Rep. Tim Fleming, a one-time aide to Kemp, and Kelvin King, whose wife, Janelle, is a member of the Trumpian, and dysfunctional, wing of the state Election Board which has battled the secretary of state’s office.

In his recent press conference, Jones kept hammering home the fact that Sterling left a $114,000 secretary of state’s job in 2019 for a $200,000 job as a contractor, although Sterling stayed in the office to roll out implementation of new election equipment.