The 2023 GRA Legislative Vote Scorecards are officially out! But brace yourself, because the results may shock you. 😳

Thankfully, the GA GOP still has a few good Republican legislators whom the GRA and the Freedom Caucus have supported. These include A-rated legislators such as State Senator Colton Moore (R-Dade), State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Cherokee), and State Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth). All three of these candidates were GRA-endorsed in the Republican primaries last year, supported financially by our GRA-PAC, and handily won their elections. They have proven to be worth the investment.

Overall, however, in the last legislative session, the Republican-led legislature dramatically shifted to the left. Not just a little bit. What we mean is that we have never had so many “Republican” legislators score with a failing grade!

In the Republican Party, we often hear folks rightly say that “an 80% friend is not a 20% enemy.” The problem is that for the vast majority of “Republican” legislators at the state capitol, they are not an “80% friend.” They are not even a “50% friend” when you honestly compare their voting record to the Republican Party platform.

We have the vast majority of Republicans in the state legislature who vote more often for Democrat policies than they do for Republican policies. If we look, for example, at the 2023 GA State House, we observe that 89% of the Republican Caucus scored an “F” rating in the last session!

That is why the GRA exists. To combat this “Uniparty” trend in the GOP.

In the State Senate, it was only a little bit better. Only 24% of “Republican” State Senators scored an “F” there. But 73% still scored a “D” or lower — which still means they voted more often for Democrat policies than for Republican policies!

No wonder we are seeing our state becoming increasingly Leftist under so-called “Republican” control! Most of our elected officials serving in Atlanta at the state capitol literally are “RINOs.” That is not merely a pejorative term. That is a fact. We might as well call them “Democrats” because they are only Republicans in label.

One of the worst examples is State House Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Cobb) who is the Chairwoman of the powerful House Public Health Committee. You may remember how Rep. Cooper blocked pro-life and medical freedom legislation in her committee last session so that it was not even allowed to come up for a vote. Meanwhile, she fast-tracked big-government socialism & corporate welfare expansions, such as with the omnibus so-called “Mental Health” H.B. 520.

For some odd reason, our friends at the Faith & Freedom Coalition gave Cooper a “100% rating” — but they did this by only evaluating her on seven bills! They excluded egregious bills like H.B. 520. If you see our scorecard, you’ll see we evaluated House legislators on 55 controversial bills and 16 controversial sponsorships that pitted Republican policies against Democrat policies. Based on her performance on this legislation, Cooper actually scored an abysmal 30% (F)!

That means there were 53 Democrats in the State House who scored equal to or better than so-called “Republican” Sharon Cooper last legislative session. Thankfully, this week Christian family groups with Operation Save America are canvassing with literature in Cooper’s East Cobb district to make sure her constituents know how poorly she has performed. This is in conjunction with their national conference taking place in Douglasville, Georgia this week.

As a result of this kind of trend, GA GOP Chairman Josh McKoon has appointed an Accountability Committee to investigate options such as adopting the proposed Accountability Rule so that delegates at state conventions could vote to preclude incumbents from qualifying again to run as Republicans in future primaries. In the absence of the Accountability Rule being adopted, the GA GOP Executive Committee or State Committee could vote to preclude incumbents in similar fashion since this is a 1st Amendment-protected right. Meanwhile, in several local county party organizations, GOP groups have already started to adopt their own versions of the Accountability Rule.

The Pickens County GOP under the leadership of GRA-member Chris Mora became the first county Republican organization to officially adopt a policy on how their party leadership could vote to block candidates from qualifying as Republican if they did not meet minimum standards.

Help us spread the word about the 2023 Legislative Vote Scorecard, and let us know if you can help us recruit new Republican candidates to run in next year’s Republican primary for state legislative offices.