Primary Victories for GRA-Endorsed Candidates!

Tuesday was a big night for many of the GRA’s endorsed candidates! In spite of some disappointing outcomes and strange anamolies in certain high-profile primary races, there was much success to be excited about in Georgia politics when the tallies were reported. We are pleased to report the following highlights:

• In the State House, we have 13 primary winners & 2 runoffs!
• In the State Senate, we have 3 primary winners& 1 runoff!
• In the U.S. Congress, we have 2 primary winners (Marjorie Taylor Greene & Caesar Gonzales)
• In the State-wide races, we have 3 primary winners (Burt Jones, Tim Echols, & Bruce Thompson)

The GRA website has been updated on the 2022 Endorsements page to note which of our endorsed candidates have won their primaries.

Northwest Georgia in particular pulled off several notable wins. A tough race was fought between GRA-endorsed former State Rep. Colton Moore (Dade) and a County Commission Chairman Steve Henry (Catoosa) to see who would replace retiring State Senator Jeff Mullis (Chickamauga), Chairman of the State Senate’s powerful Rules Committee. Mullis had made Steve Henry his “heir apparent” for the seat. 

But the final numbers reported late Tuesday night showed Colton Moore beating Steven Henry, and the Rome newspaper called the race for Colton.

Henry had distinguished himself as a the Chairman of the Catoosa County Commission by having a citizen thrown out when exercising his 1st Amendment right to bring his concerns before the county commission, and Henry is being sued for this action. In another video interview, Henry told a caller to “shut up.” Perhaps even more concerning, Henry had said in a video that citizens could have medical freedom conditioned upon whether they took a mandated vaccine.

Meanwhile, Colton Moore stands for real medical freedom without the government being able to coerce us into putting things into our bodies against our will. He said repeatedly on the campaign trail that “our natural rights are given to us from God and cannot be taken away by government!” Colton was an early proponent of Constitutional Carry in the legislature as a State Representative, and the first to call for a special session to investigate the allegations of voter fraud in 2020. Colton had earned a solid “A” rating from the GRA during his term in the State House, coming in second place only to former State Rep. Matt Gurtler(Tiger), and so we expect big things from him in the State Senate next year!

Mitchell Horner also easily won his race for State House District 3 in the Ringgold area. Mitchell is a homeschool graduate who works entrepreneurially as a pontoon boat maker, and has formerly done mission work with his family. He was endorsed by the Georgia Republican Assembly as well as Georgia Right to Life.

Mitchell has led the Catoosa Committee on Taxation, a liberty-watchdog that aided in the defeat of several proposed Tax Allocation Districts (TADs) in the area. He campaigned on school choice and eliminating the state income tax.

Of course, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s big win Tuesday night put a lot of wind in the sails of conservative stalwarts.

Greene blew her array of opponents out of the water with a huge margin of victory (69.54%) that affirms her constituency’s loyalty to her in spite of all the attacks from Democrats, RINOs, and the “fake news” media. Greene had been the only candidate in Georgia to earn the GRA endorsement by an unanimous vote of all of the delegates from across the state. She’s taking the fight to the Democrats, and we love her for it! Would that more of our Republican men would man up and fight with as much zeal.

In Cherokee County, our endorsed State Rep. Charlice Byrd successfully defended her seat with the help of the GRA-PAC in spite of much antagonism from the Atlanta Establishment. Byrd is one of only three state representatives this year who voted against the original terrible version of Speaker David Ralston‘s H.B. 1013 (aka “The Everyone is Crazy Bill”).  Byrd was endorsed by the GRA as well as Georgia Right to Life PAC, and at a GRTL event a few weeks ago on camerashe reinforced her commitment to join with other Republicans in the State House in voting against re-electing David Ralston as Speaker in Georgia next year. She won her primary against two opponents by an overwhelming vote of 66.5 percent!

But perhaps few have been as much of a thorn in the sight of David Ralston recently as has our endorsed State Rep. David Clark (Buford). He’s called for Speaker Ralston’s resignation for years after hearing the reports of his abuse in his legal practice and witnessing Ralston’s tyranny in the State House. Clark was even bold enough to attempt to run against Ralston for the Speakership. As a result, Clark was repeatedly harassed about taking COVID tests twice weekly, and was kicked out of the capitol by a state trooperat Ralston’s behest. In spite of this persecution, on Tuesday night Clark defeated State Rep. Bonnie Rich (Suwanee), the Chairwoman of the House Reapportionment Committee.

Also at the behest of Ralston, Rich’s committee had redrawn the maps during redistricting to put Clark in the same district with her, thinking Clark would be sure to lose. She also put State Rep. Philip Singleton (Coweta), another GRA-endorsed legislator, into a Democrat-controlled district to make Singleton lose. Now Rich is the one soon to be out of a legislative job. Clark beat her 59.4% to 40.76% Tuesday night.

Yet another legislator willing to stand up to Speaker Ralston is our endorsed State Rep. Sheri Gilligan (Forsyth), who came in first place in her primary out of three candidates, and will have to continue in a runoff this summer. Gilligan was another one of the only three State House members willing to vote against the original version of Ralston’s awful H.B. 1013. We would encourage you to throw any support you can offer to help her win that runoff over the next couple of months. 

With Republicans holding a slim majority in the State House already, these new wins there ensure that the Atlanta Establishment will not be able to easily ignore our GRA-endorsed candidates pushing for Republican policies implementing our stated principles. Ralston may even be in danger of losing his Speakership.

Yet another remarkable win came for State Senator Burt Jones (Jackson), our endorsed candidate for Lt. Governor, who successfully won the primary election against three other candidates. Jones had been persecuted by current Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan last year for promoting efforts within the legislature to investigate the allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Duncan had Jones stripped of his Chairmanship Insurance and Labor Committee, and took away chairmanships from two other senators as well. Jones’ election without a runoff provides him with some vindication, and we trust he will bring better leadership to the State Senate.

We wish to thank all of our endorsed candidates who were willing to run and improve Georgia’s politics—win or lose! 2022 will long serve as a significant milestone of advancement in Georgia because of your effort.