Monday evening, attorney & GRA President Alex Johnson held a Virtual Town Hall about his proposed Accountability Rule which has been submitted for business at the GA GOP State Convention in Columbus. The Town Hall was conduct over Zoom and delegates, alternates, and GRA members from across the state logged into hear him explain the rule and answer their questions. GRA NFRA Director Nathaniel Darnell served as moderator. The Town Hall went for nearly two hours, covering a lot of ground. You can watch it in its entirety now on our YouTube channel here:
Early-bird registration discount has been extended until the end of June! We are looking forward to having Congressman Matt Gaetz (Florida) join us at the NFRA Convention — along with many others!
This past Memorial Day, GRA-member and founder of The Madison Forum Michael Optiz asked the GRA leadership to give a message entitled A Tale of Two GOPs, dealing with the recent growing schism within the Georgia Republican Party. NFRA Director Nathaniel Darnell and GRA 3rd Vice President Abigail Darnell provided the message Monday evening, explaining how the rift has a lot to do with two different outlooks and approaches within the GOP. You can now see the video The Madison Forum recorded of that talk on Rumble at this link. The message also included an explanation of the proposed Accountability Rule submitted to the GA GOP State Convention.
Later this week GRA President Alex Johnson will also be giving a town hall presentation before delegates on the Accountability Rule in Walker County in Northwest Georgia. Stay tuned for more town hall discussions in the days ahead leading up to the convention.
Last week our GRA-endorsed candidates for GA GOP Executive Committee were out in force campaigning around the state.
They broadcasted as a group on The John Fredricks Show Thursday, May 18th, and you can now watch the recording here.
If you’re serving as a delegate or alternate to the GA GOP State Convention in Columbus in June, be sure to support our GRA-endorsed candidates for GA GOP Executive Committee! You can see a list of them on this image here:
If you want to get in on the early-bird registration rate for the NFRA Presidential Preference Convention in Orlando, Florida in mid-October, be sure to register before June 1st!
This weekend Governor Brian Kemp appeared to heed the great public outcry from the grassroots against S.B. 23, as it was amended in the final days of the recent legislative session.
Although we have sometimes pointed out missteps from Governor Kemp’s administration, we have also publicly expressed our appreciation when he has taken bold and right stands — as when he signed the “Constitutional Carry” legislation and when he early re-opened the state in the midst of the COVID lockdowns. This is yet another example where we want to give credit where credit is due.
Many grassroots activists such as Hank Sullivan have pointed out the problems with S.B. 23, which was amended late into the legislative session to include some of the bad provisions from H.B. 520 relating to data collection on citizens. The amendment was so bad that State Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth), who was the second sponsor of the original version of the bill, voted against his own bill. In fact, in a sign of solidarity, all of the members of the Georgia Freedom Caucus in the previous legislative session opposed the amended S.B. 23.
In a recent newsletter we reported about how multiple GOP Congressional District Conventions passed resolutions reprimanding those “Republican” legislators who voted in favor of the awful “Mental Health” H.B. 520 while commending the few Republicans who voted against it.
Several state legislators present at the 14th District GOP Convention reportedly walked out after learning about the resolution. State Rep. Mike Cameron (R-Walker) turned to the airwaves to belly-ache about the resolution on a local podcast show from Floyd County. He claimed the characterization of H.B. 520 was erroneous and complained about not being treated with more respect as a legislator at the convention. Meanwhile, elected representatives who took strong stands for Republican principles such as State Senator Colton Moore (R-Dade) and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (CD-14) were greeted by the convention as rockstars.
Cameron said he is so offended by the grassroots in northwest Georgia that he intends to boycott the GA GOP State Convention.
In response to the show, the Georgia Freedom Caucus‘ Executive Director Mallory Staples responded to these complaints and mischaracterizations of the legislation, taking to the John Fredricks Show and other programs to defend the resolution and affirm the problems with H.B. 520.
In particular, one thing Mallory pointed out was that the first “Mental Health Parity Bill” H.B. 1013 from the previous legislative session cost the state an estimated $1 billon in taxpayer funding, and now its follow-up H.B. 520 would cost another estimated $80 million to the taxpayer, if passed. (H.B. 520 is presently sitting dormant in the State Senate until next year’s legislative session.)
During the legislative session, we heard many people from the political industry in the Atlanta Establishment say that we didn’t need to pass anymore Election Integrity legislation this year because Georgia had just passed S.B. 202 in 2021. They said that we didn’t need to pass Senator Colton Moore’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (S.B. 67) because Georgia had just passed the “Constitutional Carry” bill in 2022. They said we didn’t need to pass the pro-life Prenatal Equal Protection Act because Georgia had just passed the “Heartbeat Bill” in 2019.
However, these same political industry types had no objection to the legislature trying to pass another omnibus Mental Health bill only one year after H.B. 1013 was adopted!
Some point to reports of recent mass shootings as as an illustration of the need for the state to pad the wallets of Big Pharma, take away people’s liberties, and steal more of the taxpayer’s money through such programs as Medicaid expansions. (Remember how folks voted against Democrat Stacey Abrams because she wanted to expand Medicaid in Georgia?) Yet this is actually an example of the civil government trying to fix a problem that the government has created.
When the state prohibits children from learning the Bible or having prayer in our schools, and indoctrinates them that they evolved by random chance due to no divine purpose or design, and are just chemicals and atoms bouncing off of each other, and there is no transcendent morality; when it tells them from an early age to be worried about global warming and how the earth could become uninhabitable and lead to everyone’s death, and then tries to suppress their resulting anxiety by prescribing these children with drugs until they are dependent; when it tries to pit “white people” against people with other colors of skin; when the state engages in these kinds of practices, it is no wonder that our youth are experiencing mental health issues. It is a problem the state created, and it is a problem the state will only make worse.
The solution is less statism, not more. The solution involves looking to our Creator God and not the false-god of the state.
Early-bird rates for the NFRA Convention in mid-October are now available!
Join over one thousand constitutional conservative activists and leaders from all over the nation in what will be one of the most important conventions just prior to the 2024 elections.
The convention will be held at the prestigious Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL. Come and equip yourself to make a difference! Space is limited, so reserve your spot soon!
Smyrna, GA — Last Saturday GRA members from across the state gathered at a convention to hear speeches from candidates running for GA GOP officer positions, and then to vote on whether to endorse any of those candidates. The GRA always requires a minimum of a 2/3rds majority from the participating membership in a vote to earn the endorsement, and an option of “no endorsement” is always an option.
Our GRA President Alex Johnsonkicked off the meeting with an excellent “State of the GRA” message, delineating the many accomplishments of the movement so far this GA GOP convention cycle, and the video of that message is now available for you to see on our YouTube channel here:
These GRA accomplishments have gained so much attention even nation-wide that they managed to attract the ire of the ultra uber-liberal New York Times in this article today. We wear the Times‘ attacks as a badge of honor.
Our Vetting Committee reached out to each of the state party candidates in advance and compiled a Vetting Committee report, which is available on our web site here. The participating GRA members voted to hold most of the endorsement votes by secret ballot and to allow for multiple ballots, eliminating the last-place finisher in each round.
We want to thank two of the candidates for Georgia Republican Party State Chairman, Josh McKoon and Rebecca Yardley, for coming in person to the Georgia Republican Assembly Endorsement Convention and asking for the GRA endorsement. Rebecca Yardley’s commitment to use her chairmanship to pressure the General Assembly to get rid of the Dominion machines was very well received. However, the endorsement vote was 123 to 14 in favor of Josh McKoon.
It’s been a good week for former State Senator Josh McKoon’s campaign for Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. On last Monday, he also won a straw poll of participants at the Cobb GOP Chairman’s Forum, 64%-35% over Rebecca Yardley.
We had many candidates travel from far and wide to participate in our Endorsement Convention, and we appreciate every one of them for coming and giving our members the chance and hear from them. Incumbent GA GOP Secretary Mike Welsh, for example, came with his wife all the way from Augusta, Georgia. Conservative Talk-Show host Brian Prichard from north Georgia also personally came and spoke, as did Brad Barnes from Rome.
Every single candidate who shared helped our members make a more informed decision on who to support in the up-coming GA GOP State Convention, and we thank them one and all.
We were also honored to have a surprise visit from the current GA GOP Chairman David Shaferfrom Gwinnett. Both he and our GRA-endorsed State Senator Colton Moore (Dade) shared messages with our members, which you can watch here:
Click here to watch the message from our current GA GOP Chairman David Shafer.
Click to watch the message from our GRA-endorsed State Senator Colton Moore.
In some of the races, multiple ballots had to be taken before the convention could settle on a winner. Three people are running for GA GOP 1st Vice Chair. So on the third ballot in that race, DeKalb GOP Chairwoman Marci McCarthy received the two-thirds necessary to win the endorsement. She is challenging incumbent B.J. Van Gundy.
In the race for 2nd Vice Chair of the GA GOP, the results were more decisive early on. Even though four candidates are running for that position, incumbent Brant Frost Vwon the endorsement by a ratio of more than 4-to-1 on the first ballot.
When it was all said and done, the GRA members voted for a full slate of endorsed candidates for every GA GOP Executive Committee position and even for the Over 80K and Under 80K Chairs. You can see the full list of our endorsed candidate below:
Treasurer: Vikki Consiglio (current GA GOP Assistant Treasurer)
Assistant Treasurer: Alton Russell (Columbus)
Over 80K Chair: Salleigh Grubbs (Cobb GOP Chair)
Under 80K Chair: Chris Mora (Pickens GOP Chair)
We hope that each of these candidates will be successful at bringing the reform so needed in our party: Returning to the principles, making the GOP an organization that opposes socialism in our camp, that confronts bad public policy, and confronts corrupt politicians even if they wear an “R” label. We need the Republican Party to stand up for election integrity, for medical freedom, for the vulnerable lives of the pre-born in the womb, for shielding our citizens from government stealing of our money and liberties, and for many other American principles.
The delegates who will vote on these races to determine if these candidates win election were already chosen at the Georgia Republican county conventions in early March of this year. Many of them are GRA members. They will gather in Columbus, Georgia for the GA GOP State Convention on Friday and Saturday, June 9th & 10th. Early registration for this state convention will be $110 per person. If you are a delegate or alternate to the GA GOP State Convention, and you have not yet pre-registered for the event, you can register at this link.
Beyond these Endorsement Convention results, today the GRA released the first public poll of delegates and alternates to the 2023 GAGOP convention, suggesting that our endorsed candidates have a strong chance of winning. The poll showed McKoon at 43% to 27% for Rebecca Yardley and 4% for Dennis Futch with 26% undecided.
GRA endorsed GAGOP Second Vice Chairman Brant Frost leads in the poll with 46% to 18% for Ken Carroll and 36% undecided.
GRA-endorsed candidates Marci McCarthy, Vikki Consiglio, Suzi Voyles, Alton Russell also lead in their races.
GRA Member Mike Welsh leads fellow GRA Member Caroline Jeffords by 29-18% with a massive 43% undecided.
Saturday, April 22nd, delegates reported major GRA wins in the Georgia Republican Congressional District Conventions all across the state!
The longest and perhaps hardest fought victories came in the 11th Congressional District, which concluded near 7:30pm. Going into that convention, many were still concerned that the Establishment would attempt to throw out the Cherokee County delegation, but they were successfully seated. By 4pm a secret ballot election count found that GRA-endorsed candidate David Oles(Pickens) had defeated incumbent Dr. Lisa Adkins (Cobb) for the 11th District GOP Chairman’s race by a vote of 164 to 88. GRA-endorsed candidate James Dvorak(Cherokee) also defeated Roy Adkins (Cobb) for Vice Chair of Communications in the 11th by a vote of 163 to 88. GRA-endorsed candidate Chris Mora (Pickens) won the 11th’s 1st Vice Chair position without opposition, and he presided over the remainder of that convention.
Several other GRA-endorsed candidates and GRA members were elected to the 11th District GOP Committee and the GA GOP State Committee from the 11th, including Marcia Cox (Cherokee), Carolyn Childers (Pickens), Cassandra Docherty(Cherokee), Susan Haddad (Cherokee), and Dr. Fun Fong (Cobb).
At the 14th District GOP Convention, in spite of a late smear campaign targeted against him, our GRA NFRA Director Nathaniel Darnell (Cobb) was elected as Treasurer when his opponent dropped out of the race. He was also re-elected to the GA GOP State Committee by acclamation. In that District our GRA Assistant Secretary Denise Burns (Catoosa) also easily won re-election as the 14th’s District GOP Chairwoman, and several GRA members were elected from the 14th to the GA GOP State Committee, including Jackie Harling(Walker) and our GRA Secretary Joanna Hildreth (Catoosa).
In the 6th District, another candidate who endured a series of smear campaigns was GRA-endorsed Richard Jordan (Cherokee), who successfully won election as the 1st Vice Chairman by a vote of 156 to 68.
GRA member Donna Watson (C0bb) won election as the 6th District Chairwoman. GRA-endorsed candidate Honey Burfield (Cherokee) was elected to the GA GOP State Committee from the 6th. A majority of the elected 6th District Executive Committee members were also GRA-endorsed candidates.
In the 13th District, GRA-member Nathan Adams (Cobb) won re-election as the 1st Vice Chairman in that Republican organization, and Cobb RA Executive Committee officer Matthew Hardwick won election to the GA GOP State Committee!
In the 4th District, GRA President Alex Johnson (DeKalb) and the GRA’s junior NFRA Director Catherine Bernard (DeKalb) were also elected to the GA GOP State Committee. GRA-endorsed candidate Jim Duffie (DeKalb) was elected as the 4th District GOP Chairman. That district was the earliest to report adjourning, being out by 11:30am Saturday morning.
In the 3rd Congressional District, former State Senator and GRA member Mike Crane(Coweta) was easily re-elected as 3rd District GOP Chairman. GRA 2nd Vice President Jim Fernander (Douglas) and West GRA chapter leader Katie Frost (Coweta) also easily won election to the GA GOP State Committee, along with many other terrific GRA members in the 3rd District.
But perhaps the biggest surprise upset came from the 1st Congressional District where, former candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, Kandiss Taylor(Appling) won election as the new District Chairwoman with the help of our SEGRA chapter. The uber-liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Greg Bluestein) begrudgingly acknowledged these victories Sunday morning, devoting 24 paragraphs to try and spin how “irrelevant” they are with quotes from cronies of the Atlanta political industry. Kandiss Taylor provided a response on her Facebook social media page, which you can watch here. For the third time in three years, attorney Jason Shepherd (Cobb) spitefully declared in the article that he was leaving the Republican Party. Jason has made it his regular practice to publicly malign, slander, and harass conservatives in the GOP ever since he lost a race for GA GOP Chairman to David Shafer (Gwinnett) two years ago.
These state-wide victories showcase the deep hunger the grassroots in the Republican Party have for a change toward accountability to Republican principles and policies (as described in our GOP platform). The people sense a massive disconnect between the Republican Establishment in Atlanta at the State Capitol and the folks back home.
Now we prepare for the state GA GOP Convention in Columbus, GA in early June. You can equip yourself for that event by joining us for the GRA state Endorsement Convention this coming Saturday in Smyrna, Georgia! You will have the opportunity to hear from numerous candidates, and if you are a GRA member, you will have the opportunity to vote to endorse the candidates. (Remember it takes a 2/3rd majority vote of the participating membership to earn an endorsement from the GRA.)
GRA State Endorsement Convention Saturday, April 29, 2023 | Starting at 10:00am American Legion – Smyrna Post 160 | 160 Legion Drive SE Smyrna, GA 30080 Online Registration: $40 Lunch included!
