U.S. Rep. Jody Hice plans to join a formal challenge of the presidential election results in Congress.
Hice, R-Greensboro, was among far-right members of the House to meet with President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday.
In a tweet Monday night, Hice said he met with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, the president’s attorneys, fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus and other colleagues.
The congressman said he would “lead an objection to Georgia’s electors” when a joint session of Congress gathers Jan. 6 to tally Electoral College votes.
Electors met last week in the 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C., to cast the official votes for president. As expected, Democratic nominee Joe Biden got 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
The 16 votes from Georgia went for Biden, the first time a Democrat has carried the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Hice has tweeted prolifically since the Nov. 3 election, a vote in which he was reelected to Congress in a landslide from Georgia’s 10th District, including part of Newton County. He’s claimed “deep concerns” about management of elections in the state, including a signature matching process he called “a joke.”
Trump has refused to concede the election, despite no proof of widespread fraud and no major victories in court, and has not met with Biden since Election Day. Biden is slated to take office Jan. 20.
Any member of congress may contest the results of the Electoral College. If at least one senator and one member of the House object to a state’s electors, the House and Senate vote separately on whether to exclude them.
Given that the Democrats control the House and the Republicans control the Senate — for now — it’s not likely such an effort would be successful.
Hice was one of 19 congressmen to write Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders on Capitol Hill to ask for election fraud hearings before the Jan. 6 Electoral College session.
Hice also signed on to the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit that sought to have the Supreme Court overturn the election results in Georgia and other swing states that went for Biden and have Republican-majority state legislatures pick new electors.
The Supreme Court declined to act on that suit.
Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Paulding County, is expected to join Hice in challenging the results from Georgia. She takes office Jan. 3.
Pence will lead the Jan. 6 session of Congress, but it’s likely Georgia will have just a single senator then. David Perdue is in a Jan. 5 runoff and can’t be seated until results are certified, which could take up to two weeks.
