December 2023 - The Georgia Republican Assembly

Political Lessons from Advent Season

December 25, 2023 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

As the recently elected new GRA President, I want to extend a happy greeting to you on behalf of our organization at this “most wonderful time of the year!” We count it a privilege to work alongside all of our grassroots friends across the state. Although we’ve changed a few things on our leadership team, we want to renew our commitment to you to continue to stand for the American principles of the Republican Party which have made our nation great.

The Christmas season is a good time to consider how we should reform the political landscape in our state. The themes and archetypes of the season depicted in the popular stories, songs, and movies are rooted in the original historic story of Christ’s birth and the circumstances surrounding it. Here are some lessons we can learn from them:

1. Don’t Be a Herod / Grinch / Scrooge / Mr. Potter

All the classic Christmas fiction seems to have a hardened bully character with a bad attitude who opposes the spirit of the season. Whether the character goes by the name of “Scrooge” or “Mr. Potter” or “the Grinch,” they ultimately hearken back to the curmudgeon of the original Christ’s birth story: King Herod. At the state capitol in Atlanta, we’ve had our share of real-life characters of this sort. Sometimes they come under the label “Democrat” and sometimes by the label “Republican,” but they all have some things in common such as a lording of their human power over others, a closing of their ears of compassion to needs they have the jurisdiction and power to alleviate, and a rejection of the significance of Christ’s coming in their lives.

King Herod in the Bible was so desperate to cling to his material political power that he became notorious for murdering a whole generation of babies in his land in his attempt to kill Christ, and today we also have politicians complicit in the murder of thousands of babies—and they force you to pay for it with your tax dollars. In fact in Georgia since Dobbs, there are now more abortion murders committed at clinics each year than there was before!

The Herod-type political characters are not only cold to the murder of those who cannot vote, they’re hard hearted to the stealing of millions of dollars through socialist programs, they turn a blind eye to evidence of stolen elections, and they don’t care about the dissolution of the nuclear family.

In some of the Christmas fiction stories, the Herod archetype character experiences redemption (such as Scrooge or the Grinch). We observe that kind of thing in the Bible when the persecutor Saul of Tarsus had his Damascus Road experience and became the Apostle Paul. But in the original Christ’s birth story, King Herod sadly never experienced any change of heart. Only judgment.

Revitalize Georgia’s GOP: Stand with Us Against the Establishment!

December 22, 2023 by Alex Johnson in Issues

Donald Trump was elected President because people are sick and tired of lying, selfish politicians that sell out the country for their own advancement and the love of their paid political industry/lobbyist friends.

That is why the Democrat DA Fani Willis is prosecuting him and other Republicans in Fulton County, and it’s also why the National Federation of Republican Assemblies has endorsed him for re-election at our October Convention in Orlando, Florida.

It’s also why these Establishment people are refusing to do what’s necessary to end the prosecutions, and kicked out Senator Colton Moore instead of standing behind him to hold Willis accountable. But this isn’t unexpected.

It was just in 2017 that the Georgia GOP elected a lobbyist as party Chairman, who donated to Democrats. Even today, a GAGOP district chairman exists who is a paid lobbyist who had donated money to Democrats. It was only after 2019 that the Georgia GOP instituted a state party platform: throughout much of 2013-2019, the Georgia GOP refused to take a stand on any issue, allowing spineless alleged Republicans to do things like expand Obamacare with impunity, or to raise taxes.

If the branding of Republicanism is this terrible, is it any surprise that we look so weak publicly? As we’ve been pushing for years, if the GAGOP doesn’t maintain its brand, we will lose elections. The Establishment, instead of trying to secure and thereby increase trust in our elections, regularly tries to suppress the election integrity movement.

But there’s good news: the Establishment is losing, and with your help, we’re going to end their control over Georgia elected officials and public policy.

As we pointed out before, the Republican Party has the power to maintain its brand. Under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, we have freedom of association: meaning that the Republican Party cannot be forced by the government, or anyone else, to qualify certain candidates for office.

*The Accountability Rule is going into operation in local GOP county organizations around the state.*

The Establishment doesn’t want you to know this, dislikes it, and, frankly, has probably forgotten about it. They love contested primaries where they can just convince the public that their America-Last, sellout candidates are the “best” by raising and spending millions of dollars from corporate interests. They will never want to prevent figures like Obama, Pelosi, or other actual Democrats from running on the Republican ballot because they benefit financially from such conflicts. They don’t care who wins, as long as they get paid and their clients are happy.

But the grassroots, anti-Establishment people understand the issue: it is virtually impossible to beat people raising $500,000+ for a job that pays $20,000/yr, funded fully by interests looking to make money off the government. People like Liz Cheney and Brad Raffensperger will happily destroy our party’s reputation and brand while ignoring the grassroots.

This ends when the Republican Party, through your involvement, simply votes in the party to not let them run as Republicans.

Last year, we proposed a GAGOP rules change that would prohibit anyone other than convention delegates and county parties from refusing to qualify fake Republicans for office. This measure was never brought up for a vote.

But the power of the GAGOP, and its local parties, to simply not allow people to qualify for party office who do not meet your very basic standards remained unchanged.

Excitement at the GRA State Convention: New Officers, Impressive Speakers & Awards

December 9, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in conventions

Newnan, GA — Saturday, GRA members from as far as Catoosa County in the northwest corner to Chatham County in the southeast corner of the state gathered to vote on approving resolutions, adopting bylaw-changes, and electing new officers to serve on the GRA’s state Executive Committee. They also got to hear from an array of inspiring guest speakers.

*Alex Johnson presiding over the convention.*

The body voted in favor of a bylaw change that created a new officer position on the Board and Executive Committee: Chairman of the Board. Attorney Alex Johnson, who has served as the GRA President for about a decade, was elected to this new position, freeing him up to give more time and attention to his elected position as the NFRA President while still providing counsel and oversight of the GRA and still presiding over official meetings and conventions.

Nathaniel Darnell from Cobb County was elected as the new GRA President, which the amended bylaws specify would operate more like a C.E.O. or Executive Director for the organization. Nathaniel has served as the NFRA Director for the last four years. Prior to that, he served as the 3rd Vice President. His wife Abigail Darnell was elected to replace him in his NFRA Director position.

Anne Lane from DeKalb was elected as the new Assistant Secretary, and Stephen Alligood was elected as the new 3rd Vice President, after Mrs. Darnell’s promotion.

The other elected officers on the GRA Executive Committee will be unchanged. Brant Frost V of Coweta will continue to serve as the 1st Vice President, attorney Catherine Bernard of DeKalb as the now Senior NFRA Director for the GRA, Jim Fernander of Douglasville as the 2nd Vice President, Joanna Hildreth of Catoosa as the Secretary, and Banks Wise of Cherokee as the Treasurer.

The new GRA Executive Committee: Brant Frost, Jim Fernander, Alex Johnson, Nathaniel Darnell, Stephen Alligood, Joanna Hildreth, Catherine Bernard, Abigail Darnell, and Anne Lane. (Treasurer Banks Wise is absent from the photo.)

*Alex Johnson bestowing the award for exceptional service upon Denise Burns.*

The convention also honored Walker County’s Denise Burns, who for the last term has done double-duty, serving as the GRA’s Assistant Secretary while also being the elected 14th District GA GOP Chairwoman. She decided to not run for another term on the GRA Executive Committee, given her many other duties, but the GRA praised her for her exceptional service over the last few years of growth within the organization.

The newly elected officers were joined at the convention by most of the other members of the GRA Board (pictured at top), including the local chapter Presidents and Action Group Chairmen.

One of the local chapter Presidents who spoke at the convention was Brittany Brown of the SEGRA chapter, who was also elected this year as the Chatham County GOP Chairwoman. She and Fulton County GOP Chairwoman Stephanie Endres gave a presentation on how their county GOPs were stolen by the RINO Establishment two years ago only to be re-claimed this year during convention season. Now these promise to be strategic high-population counties that could have a significant impact on the up-coming 2024 elections.

Kandiss Taylor (1st District GA GOP Chair) served as the Resolutions Committee Chairwoman at the GRA Convention Saturday. The body adopted resolutions supporting medical freedom, election integrity, the Accountability Rule, and RICO reform, while “censuring” the Republican legislators who voted for the Mental Health Parity bill, H.B. 520 last year. Kandiss encouraged the activists to reserve ammunition for the RINOs and Democrats rather than firing on each other.

One of the keynote speakers at the convention was Garrett Ziegler, founder of Marco Polo — an opposition research group. Mr. Ziegler served as the Associate Director of Trade & Manufacturing Policy under former President Donald Trump. He spoke at length especially about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

In addition, attendees got to hear the latest report from Georgia Freedom Caucus leaders Mallory Staples, State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Cherokee), and State Senator Colton Moore (R-Dade). Moore and Byrd concluded the special legislative session with the rest of the Georgia General Assembly last Thursday, and now are preparing for the regular legislative session starting in January 2024. We honored Charlice and Colton with special awards for their courageous statesmanship:

Chattooga County GOP Adopts Local Accountability Rule

December 7, 2023 by Abigail Darnell in Candidates / Issues

Summerville, GA – Chattooga GOP Chair and GRA Member Jennifer Tudor announced a new bylaw amendment adopted by the county party in early November that specified how the Chattooga County GOP could exercise their accountability power and prevent known RINOs from running on the Republican ballot. Notice of the bylaw change was posted in the local courthouse for all to see. This ruffled quite a few feathers and made front page news in the rural community despite the fact that the Democrat Party of Chattooga County had previously exercised this same power to prevent a candidate from running on the Democrat ballot.

Tudor issued a statemen t on behalf of the party:

“Republican voters deserve truth and transparency. The Chattooga County GOP believes that when a candidate is labeled a Republican, they ought to represent the principles of the Republican Party such as limited government, low taxes, the right to life, gun rights, etc. (See GAGOP Platform: https://gagop.org/resolutions/).

“Should we be forced to accept a candidate who claims to be Republican but supports abortion, gun control, big government and high taxes?

“Struggling families in our community continue to be hurt by high taxes, inflation and wasteful government programs. Deceptive politicians should not be allowed to take advantage of poor, low information voters.

“With this bylaw in effect, the people of Chattooga county can rest confident knowing that, when a candidate runs on the Republican ballot, they will work to truly advance Republican policy.

“We believe, as members of the CCRP, we have a responsibility to the voters of Chattooga County to ensure the candidates on their Republican ballots are true Republicans that believe in the Republican platform. We strive to be worthy of this trust and believe this bylaw amendment will equip us to better serve the people of Chattooga County.”

The bylaw amendment establishes a “County Qualifying Committee” whose written approval is required before a candidate may be placed on the Republican ballot.

The statement from the Chattooga GOP also referenced the constitutional authority under which a political party may exercise this power – the First Amendment right to Freedom of Association. The statement included a quote from Justice William Brennan:

“There can be no clearer example of an intrusion into the internal structure or affairs of an association than a regulation that forces the group to accept members it does not desire. Such a regulation may impair the ability of the original members to express only those views that brought them together.”-Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984) U.S. Justice Brennan (also quoted by the late U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000)).

“RINO policies hurt real people,” said Nathaniel Darnell from the GRA. “GOP leaders shouldn’t just stand by and watch families and communities be destroyed by harmful policies and politicians masquerading under the Republican label. This is a big win for the accountability movement in our state and we applaud Jennifer and her team for their courage.”

Chattooga County is one of several counties where local Republican Party leaders have indicated they will begin exercising their accountability power and serving as the gatekeeper for the low information voters in their County.