Columbus—A whopping 2,057 delegates from across the state assembled at the GA GOP State Convention last weekend, taking up business to continue to improve the Republican Party in our state. They also were excited to hear former President Donald Tump provide the keynote address on Saturday afternoon.
Some business was completed and other business was left undone. The main accomplishment of the convention was that delegates swept out of all of the most outspoken, obstructionist, and antagonistic officers or candidates promoting the interests of the Atlanta Establishment. The immediate list of GA GOP Executive Committee members (apart from the District Chairs), went from having five hard-core Establishment people to having only one. That is impressive improvement!
This election was a clear example of the success of the accountability movement. Conservatives have been slowly making gains each convention for the last 10 years, and now have clearly tipped the scales. The political industry lost it’s grip on the GA Republican Party.
Our volunteer GRA members handed out thousands of brochures and stickers for our endorsed candidates, gave away hundreds of educational books, sold lots of fun SWAG, and promoted several of our initiatives at our vendor table and in the hallways at the event throughout the weekend. Networking and meeting like-minded patriots from around the state is always a delight at these state conventions that bring Republicans together from every corner of Georgia.
GRA-Endorsed Winners
The GRA-endorsed candidate for State Party Chairman Josh McKoon won his race with 54% of the vote! A highly-rated former State Senator, Josh ran promising to build upon the success of Chairman Shafer by uniting factions, raising funds for “law-fare,” and continuing the fight for election integrity in Georgia. The GRA also saw three other of its GRA-endorsed candidates win election to the GA GOP Executive Committee. One of them, Cobb GOP Chairwoman and GRA member Salleigh Grubbs, won election as the new Over 80K Chair on Friday afternoon. Caroline Jeffords from Fulton County was another GRA-endorsed candidate who soundly won her election for GA GOP Secretary with 59% of the vote. Caroline has been lauded as an election-integrity heroine by taking the lead as a plaintiff on one of the first lawsuits filed after the 2020 election, and her case is still pending. Another big win came for GRA-endorsed candidate Suzi Voyles — an Eagle Forum leader and legend for election integrity — who was elected by a land-slide 80% of the vote as the new Assistant Secretary!
Even in races where the GRA-endorsed candidate did not win, the Establishment candidate came in third place, and the first-place winners were also anti-Establishment candidates running on a conservative platform consistent with the principles of the Republican Party. One example of this was Brian Pritchard, who came in first place on a three-way contest for 1st Vice Chairman. Pritchard has been the host of the show Voice of Rural America. Another example was seen in the race for 2nd Vice Chairman where another election-integrity advocate David Cross won first place and the Establishment candidate came in third in a four-way contest.
This was the first state convention in which the GRA had a full slate of endorsed candidates to run for the Executive Committee. In the last election we had only three endorsed candidates who successfully won, and now we have fiveserving on the GA GOP Executive Committee, apart from the District Chairs & our National Committeeman & Committeewoman.
As the Immediate Past Chairman, David Shafer will replace corporate lobbyist John Watson who preceded him, on the Executive Committee. Watson left the party over a quarter of a million dollars in debt (a carryover from his predecessor John Padgett), which Shafer paid off, leaving more than $1 million in the bank at the close of his term this past weekend. Chairman Shafer also instituted a state party platform for the first time in the Georgia, just as he promised he would. He has endured harassing lawsuits from the Democrats since the 2020 election. We were pleased to endorse him in both 2019 and 2021.
In total, between the district conventions and the state convention, we wrapped up holding 12 of the 26 seats elected to serve on the full GA GOP Executive Committee. These GRA people are Patriots who share an accountability mindset and are more loyal to the principles of the party, than to the powerful politicians in Atlanta. We also look forward to them getting to work on reforms with other conservatives on the Executive Committee.
We predict you will begin to see the GA GOP play a stronger role in calling elected officials to action, and operate less like a mere cheerleading apparatus for those politicians.