Canton, GA — On Thursday, Jacob Medoff, attorney for the eleven GOP Delegates and State Committee Members seeking accountability by suing the Georgia Republican Party filed a motion explaining the necessity of the Court’s intervention. The delegates do not seek any monetary benefit to themselves, but they seek a declaratory judgment against the GA GOP after the party organization in March qualified a candidate for office, Brad Raffensperger, who had been banned at the last Republican Convention by the delegates from running on the Republican ballot. 

The GA GOP’s rogue action defying the explicit instructions of the state convention created an uncertainty about the powers and duties of the State Committee, State Convention, and State Executive Committee.  The delegates hope that a declaratory judgement would resolve that uncertainty. 

 “A number of committee members and convention representatives of the GRP face current uncertainty as to their obligations,” wrote Medoff in the motion. “This uncertainty extends beyond the question of whether or not Raffensperger could be certified as a candidate if he chooses to run for office as a Republican; it extends to the present, ongoing question of whether the Binding Resolution itself remains in force and continues to bind the State Committee and State Executive Committee today”(emphasis added).

Medoff continued: “That the 2026 certification of Raffensperger happens to be the occasion that surfaced the dispute does not confine the relief sought to that single, completed event; Plaintiffs ask the Court to settle the scope of the Committee’s authority prospectively, so that the Committee, the Convention, and Plaintiffs themselves know the governing rule before the Convention’s next resolution and the Committee’s next exercise of authority.”

“At the heart of this lawsuit is a straightforward question of internal governance: When the GRP state convention adopts a resolution, are the state committee and state executive committee bound by it?” said Brandyn James, one of the plaintiffs leading this accountability measure.

The Georgia Republican Party attorney has argued that the eleven Delegates are asking the court to meddle in the party’s internal affairs, where the court does not have jurisdiction, and that the question is moot now, since Raffensperger ran and lost and is no longer a candidate. 

“Plaintiffs do not ask the Court to review the wisdom of excluding Raffensperger, to seat any delegate, to resolve any credentialing dispute, or to substitute its judgment for the GRP’s judgment on any matter of political discretion,” the motion read. “Plaintiffs ask the Court to answer a narrower and more conventional question: what do Rules 2.1 and 3.1 of the GRP’s own governing document mean, and what authority do they confer on the State Committee and State Executive Committee once the State Convention has adopted a resolution and adjourned”?

This is a function Georgia courts routinely perform for voluntary associations and nonprofit corporations. Thousands of Georgia Republicans deserve to know if the bylaws and rules of the GA GOP actually govern the party, and if it is worth attending the next state convention, paying for travel costs, paying registration fees, and enduring hours of speeches and preliminaries, or not. 

Medoff wrote that the “GRP has not defended its 2026 certification of Raffensperger on the ground that the Resolution was politically unwise, or that changed circumstances warranted departing from it as a matter of judgment. It has instead taken the position, in writing, that the Resolution carries no binding legal force on the State Committee or State Executive Committee at all once the Convention adjourns.”

Georgia Republicans deserve to know if that is, in fact, the case or if that statement from the GOP’s attorney is a convenient excuse to defend the decision of the current party leadership who acted unlawfully in violation of party rules and the party’s own stated authority structure. 

At a time when Republicans ought to be banding together to fight Democrats in the general election, Chairman Josh McKoon and party attorney Alex Kaufman refuse to acknowledge that they did anything wrong by disobeying the order passed by the delegates at the state convention. All that these delegates are asking for is an acknowledgment and a promise to not break the rules like that again.

If you would like to see clarity on this dispute, and want the Georgia Republican Party to operate with integrity moving forward, please consider donating to the plaintiffs fundraiser on GiveSendGo. 

If every delegate who attended the 2025 convention could donate $10, it would probably more than cover the legal costs to settle this question once and for all. 

Could It Happen Again?

There are future conventions to consider. The eleven Plaintiffs hope their lawsuit will be successful and will restore the trust of the volunteer Republican delegates across the state before the next convention so the party can grow and thrive. They expect, if they are successful, that their effort will help to increase attendance in the next GA GOP convention cycle. 

There is an ongoing concern that Brad Raffensperger could attempt to qualify as a Republican for another office again in the future. But this issue is bigger than any one candidate, or any one primary election. This points to an institutional problem in the Georgia Republican Party.

The chances of a similar situation occurring again are high, but the dispute itself is not a speculative one. The dispute is ongoing as was admitted to by the Republican Party’s own attorney. 

The motion states:

“The GRP State Executive Committee has already certified Raffensperger once in defiance of it [the resolution] and through counsel’s June 26th, 2026 correspondence, the GRP has formally and affirmatively asserted that it retains the authority to do so again. … Recurrence of this precise dispute is not conjecture, as it was in Cardinale; it has been announced by the GRP itself, in writing.”

The Republican Party belongs to grassroots delegates like you who hold to Republican ideology and volunteer for the principles you believe in. These eleven delegates have courageously stepped up and assumed risk for zero personal reward. Will you help these brave delegates as they try to ensure this problem doesn’t occur again? 

It’s not enough to complain about the problems in the Republican Party. GRA members take action to fix those problems. You can join the many other concerned Republicans who have supported this effort by donating to the legal fund here: https://www.givesendgo.com/stopraffy