Nathaniel Darnell, Author at The Georgia Republican Assembly

Cobb RA Chapter Hosting BBQ & Election Night Watch Party: November 4th

October 25, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

Many dedicated grassroots volunteers are working hard to get out the vote for the Public Service Commission races on November 4th. Come celebrate their efforts, enjoy great fellowship, and savor some mouthwatering barbecue with the Cobb County Republican Assembly chapter!

All patriots are welcome to join us for this fun social BBQ event where we will be celebrating our hard work & watch the returns for Public Service Commission races! There is no cost to attend, but we do need folks to pre-register so we have an accurate head count.

As per the rules of the Cheatham Community Center, no alcoholic beverages will be provided, but we will have a variety of other drinks available and free barbecue to enjoy!

• Address: 3702 Ernest W Barrett Pkwy SW, Marietta, GA 30064
• Date: Tuesday, November 4th
• Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Jerry Ramsey, the 2nd Vice President of the Cobb County Republican Assembly, is the primary coordinator for this barbecue. As many know, Jerry’s Election Night parties are legendary. If you have questions about the event, please reach out to Jerry.

Click here t o R.S.V.P. for the Cobb RA BBQ & Election Night Watch Party.

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR FITZ JOHNSON & TIM ECHOLS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER!

Regardless of where you live in Georgia, you are eligible to vote in the state-wide Public Service Commissioner elections going on right now! Early voting has started, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th!

Early poll reporting shows that so far Democrat voting exceeds Republican voting in this race. It is imperative that we get as many of our fellow Republicans to go to the polls and vote for the Republican nominees in this important election. Democrats are eager to impose the same kinds of “Green New Deal” policies in Georgia as they have in states like California — which will wreck jobs and cause energy costs to skyrocket!

Make sure your Republican friends and family all remember to vote!

Fulton County Democrat Commissioners in Danger of Contempt of Court After Refusing to Appoint Election Integrity Champions to Fulton Board of Elections

August 21, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in Election / Issues

Atlanta, GA — The Fulton County Commission held a long-awaited vote on whether to approve the Republican appointments to the Board of Elections. They had previously defied the law by refusing the appointments, and a judge had ordered the county commission to follow the law and accept the two appointments from GRA member and Fulton GOP Chairman Stephanie Endres. She appointed GRA Election Integrity Chairman Jason Frazier and election integrity activist Julie Adams to serve, but when it came time for the Commissioners to vote, several of the Democrat Fulton County commissioners left the room before the vote was taken.

The final result was 2 in favor and 2 against. Thus, the motion failed.

The Democrats on the commission have labeled Frazier and Adams as extremists simply because they take election integrity seriously. Yet now, these same Democrats are disregarding both the law and a court order—and they may soon find themselves in serious trouble.

The Fulton County Republican Party, with help from attorneys from the RNC, filed a motion on Thursday to find the defiant Democrat commissioners in contempt.

This is not the first time the Democrat-controlled commission has violated the law by refusing to accept Endres’ appointment to the board. In June of 2023, the county commission also rejected Frazier. Frazier had developed a reputation by volunteering his own time and money to clean up voter rolls in Fulton because the county wasn’t doing its job as required by law. In one example of his challenges, an abandoned house at 850 Oak Street NW in Atlanta had twenty voter registrations!

Frazier had also been the one to discover that there were approximately 20,000 duplicate voter registrations in Fulton and approximately 2,000 registrations had no address listed.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Catoosa GOP’s Right of Association on the Primary Ballot

June 13, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in Government / Issues

Atlanta, GA — The federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the trajectory of the Catoosa GOP’s case dealing with their right to refuse to allow four RINO past-serving commissioners to run again as Republicans in the primary. We felt confident this would eventually happen as the case made its way up the ladder in the federal appeals process because SCOTUS precedent on this subject is so clearly favorable to the Catoosa GOP’s position.

The court also rebuked the lower court Judge Bill Ray in Rome for not recognizing the Catoosa GOP’s right to “freedom of speech” when the Board of Elections refused to publish the questions the Catoosa Republican Primary had submitted for the primary ballot last year.

The Catoosa County Republican Party issued this statement:

Opponents to accountability on the primary ballot have argued that Georgia’s state law does not allow political parties to deny primary ballot access, but the 11th Circuit said any such restrictions in the state law would be in violation of the 1st Amendment’s protection of “freedom of association.” In addressing the Catoosa GOP’s standing to sue, one key part of the text of the federal court’s opinion said:

“We respectfully disagree with the district court’s reasons for distinguishing our Duke cases. The court noted that this case in-volved a county-level political party, rather than a state or national party. But we see no reason why a county-level party, and its constituent members, would not also enjoy the right to freedom of association and the right to identify those who constitute the local party based on political beliefs. See id. The court also suggested that the Duke cases are different because they involved a presidential primary where the party ‘enjoyed substantial discretionary power’ to select candidates, but Georgia state law ‘provides no discretion for a county party to deny qualification to candidates based on substantive concerns.’ See O.C.G.A. § 21-2-153. That state law may prevent the Catoosa GOP from excluding primary candidates for ideological reasons, though, simply shows that its right to freedom of association has been burdened. It does not negate the right. After all, a political party’s constitutional right to exclude, ‘central to its freedom of association,’ is not derived from state law. Wash. State Grange v. Wash. State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 445 (2008).” (Underlining added.)

In addition to addressing the standing to sue for “right of association,” the 11th Circuit also addressed the subject of the ballot questions that were not allowed to be published as a violation of the county GOP’s “freedom of speech.” This aspect of the controversy in the case often gets eclipsed by the other aspect dealing with the right of association. The court said that even though the ballots are published by the government, that medium does not take away from a private entity’s freedom of speech. Catoosa GOP Chairman Joanna Hildreth (who was re-elected this year) & her team submitted three primary ballot questions last year to be included on the county GOP primary ballot, as political parties often do, but the Board of Elections refused to publish them.

The two primary ballot questions that the court included in their opinion were these:

”1. Do you think anti-Trump Democrats should be able to get a court order to force the elections board to qualify them as Republican candidates for office?

“2. Did you know that [the four excluded candidates (listed by name)] were not approved to run as Repub-licans by the Republican Party?”

The 11th Circuit Court remanded the case (sent the case back to the lower federal judge, presumably Judge Billy Ray in Rome) to take another stab at addressing the Catoosa GOP’s suit — this time on its merits.

You can read the entire opinion of the 11th Circuit Court by clicking her e.

7th & 11th Regional Endorsement Convention Selects District Candidates

April 24, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in Candidates / conventions

This coming Saturday, most of the Congressional District GA GOP organizations will be hosting their district conventions, and if you are a district convention delegate or alternate, it is imperative that you attend and help ensure we get the best patriots possible elected to leadership in the GA GOP at this level for the next two years!

In Woodstock Tuesday night, our North Metro RA chapter (Pickens & Cherokee), our Fulton RA chapter, and our Cobb RA chapter combined to co-host a Regional Candidate Forum & Endorsement Convention for the 7th & 11th Congressional Districts. We heard not only from the District Chair candidates for these races, but also from dozens of down-ballot ones.

As a result, the participating GRA membership voted by a 2/3rds majority to endorse the following Chair candidates:

• For 7th District Chairman: Richard Jordan from Cherokee County

• For 11th District Chairman: David Oles from Pickens County

*David Oles speaking at the regional endorsement convention.*

David Oles is the incumbent District 11 Chairman, and has been serving as one of three attorneys helping pro bono with the Catoosa GOP lawsuit against the four RINO commission candidates. In addition, he has been leading as an attorney on several premiere election integrity suits.

David has been the first non-Establishment grassroots Chairman that District 11 has had in decades (one of his recent predecessors donated to Democrats while serving as the Republican District Chairman!).

Richard Jordan has been the chapter President for our North Metro RA chapter for the last few years, and has been very pro-active in local Republican politics and election integrity reform efforts. He’s a go-getter with a gift for organization and getting things done!

The convention also endorsed on many (but not all) down-ballot races, which you can see below.

– On Down-Ballot Races in the 7th:

State Legislature Finally Votes to Pass RFRA & Governor Kemp Promised the GRA He Would Sign

April 2, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in Government / Issues

Atlanta, GA — The Georgia State House voted to pass the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) late this evening by a vote of 96 to 70. GRA-endorsed State Reps. Charlice Byrd (R-Cherokee) and Noelle Kahaian both voted in favor of the bill, which was S.B. 36.

We’re pleased that the State Legislature has finally passed RFRA legislation after all of these years of only talking about it! Back in 2017, the GRA put the question to each of the Republican gubernatorial candidates running in the primary, asking if they would be willing to sign RNFRA legislation, if elected Governor, and Brian Kemp was the first to make the pledge:

Therefore, we feel confident that Governor Brian Kemp will sign this version of the bill very soon.

The bill mirrors federal legislation that has been in place since 1993, and imposes new restrictions on state and local governments’ ability to “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless it is “in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest.”

RFRA was initially authored at the federal level in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision Employment Division v. Smith, which held that the government could burden the right of “free exercise of religion,” contrary to the text of the 1st Amendment, as long as it could articulate a reason (any reason) for the burden — the so called “rational basis” test.

This made “free exercise of religion” claims secondary to other 1st Amendment-protected rights, such as “freedom of the press,” “free association,” or” free speech” claims that the government could only win upon demonstrating a compelling governmental interest in the restriction (the “strict scrutiny” test). The federal RFRA instructed courts to restore free exercise claims to the same category as all other First Amendment claims.

However, in 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case City of Boerne v. Flores case that federal RFRA only applied to claims against the federal government, not the state government. This is why many states have adopted their own state-version of RFRAs so that “free exercise of religion” claims against state and local governments are not treated as second class to other ones protected by the 1st Amendment.

Former Governor Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed the previous RFRA bill the Georgia General Assembly passed in 2016, which had been the brain-child of then-State Senator Josh Mckoon (R-Columbus). The fulfillment of a promise to pass a new version of RFRA has been a long time coming.

Registration for the GRA State Endorsement Convention is Now Open!

March 12, 2025 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

More and more candidates continue to announce for state party officer positions, and they are all invited to particpate in our state Endorsement Convention. The registration for the GRA’s 2025 State Endorsement Convention is ope n! This year, the Endorsement Convention will be held in Canton, GA on May 10th. We welcome you to join us to hear from the candidates running for state party office and to vote (if you’re a GRA member) on who we should endorse as an organization. Remember, it takes a two-thirds majority of the participating members to endorse any candidate. Here is the list of candidates we know have announced so far:

GA GOP State Party Chairman: Josh McKoon v. David Cross
GA GOP 1st Vice Chair: Salleigh Grubbs
GA GOP 2nd Vice Chairman: Seanie Zappendorf v. Norine Cantor v. Betsey Kramer
GA GOP Secretary: Susie Voyles v. Cindiella Nixon
GA GOP Assistant Secretary: Caroline Jeffords v. Ja’Quon Stembridge
GA GOP Treasurer: Laurie McClain v. Jeff DellaMaggiora
GA GOP Assistant Treasurer: Jenny Eckman

If you would like to run for a position on the GA GOP Executive Committee, you must submit your intent to run by March 15th! If you want to vote in the GRA Endorsement Convention, your membership applicatio n must be approved no later than April 10th.

You can attend the Endorsement Convention even if you are not a member. Registration comes with a boxed lunch.

At our endorsement convention last year, members appreciated being able to hear from the candidates and ask questions about their stance on issues and their vision for the party.

Click here to register for the GRA Endorsement Convention on Ma y 10th.

This Thanksgiving, Let Us Remember to Whom We Should Be Especially Thankful …

November 27, 2024 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

We at the GRA wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow as we celebrate the blessings of God upon our nation! These blessings were particularly evident in the recent general election as we saw NFR A-endorsed Donald Trump re-elected as U.S. President, and Republicans win back the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House!

We’re also thankful for a newly emerging breed of local and state Republican leaders like State Senator Colton Moore (District 53) who are providing a higher caliber of Republican in Georgia—focused on advancing Republican principles.

I recently had the delight of joining Senator Moore, Rep. Charlice Byrd (District 20) and former State Rep. Matt Gurtler (now Chief of Staff to Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky) at Moore’s Machine Gun Shootout in northwest Georgia. We had a blast celebrating together the recent wins.

Moore has been a voice of conviction for truth in the state legislature when many others shrink in cowardice. For example, you may have seen Moore’s recent reactio n when Laken Riley’s murderer was conv icted. Moore immediately called for GA’s Attorney General Chris Carr to act so that the convicted murderer would receive capital punishment, but do-nothing Carr continues to sit on his hands as usual in failing to enforce critical Georgia laws.

The Word of God says that the best way to protect innocent life is with the death penalty against those who would destroy it. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:12). This is much of the reason for why we stand for gun rights in America: Everyone has the right to defend himself with deadly force against those who would threaten him with deadly force.

But after a crime has occurred, God has delegated the authority and responsibility only to civil government to impose capital punishment for convicted murderers who have received due process. (See Exodus 21:1 2; Romans 13:3-4.) The brutal murder of Laken Riley deserves such a punishment.

But instead the taxpayers are being forced to provide Riley’s vicious murderer with free room and board for the rest of his life.

And yet Mr. Carr is not only ignoring the necessary action, but he’s apparently tone deaf enough to have announced he’s the first candidate to run as Georgia’s next so-called “Republican” Governor. We hope better candidates will enter that race in the days to come.

In the meantime, the GRA is going to continue to work alongside and support courageous and principled champions such as Colton Moore and resist the RINOswho would make America pathetic again.

The Bible teaches clearly that the role of Civil Government is to do justice, not charity, and not economic development. We look forward to the day when civil government gives more attention to doing real justice for victims, and less attention to micro-managing people’s lives and livelihoods.

To Whom Are You Thankful?

The Pilgrim fathers who gathered in Plymouth for the first Thanksgiving Day knew exactly to whom they owed gratitud e. Likewise, President George Washington made it abundantly clear who our nation should be thankful for in his first national Thanksgiving proclamation.

Being thankful always requires an object of that gratitude.

The other day I was listening to a high school teacher explain to his students how the word “love” only makes sense if there is a specific target of that love. In grammar, words like “love” are what they call transitive verbs. No matter what the Democrats say, one is not simply a love person or a hate person. Everyone loves something and everyone hates something. Usually, we hate that which opposes what we love. It is the same with being thankful. Thankfulness is not just a warm fuzzy floating around in our feelings directed at no one in particular. We must have an object.

Who is the object of your thanksgiving this year? Hopefully, we are counting our blessings and thanking our families for their support throughout the daily grind. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Being grateful is good for the soul.

We should also be grateful for all of the hard-working volunteers in the GOP who made the recent victories possible. They worked tirelessly for the families in their community, who will all benefit from Republican policies, but never know who made it happen and will likely never express their gratitude.

There are many people we should thank. But most of all, we must give thanks to God.

This need is particularly underscored when we witness remarkable acts of providence and blessing for which mere coincidence cannot adequately account. Events like Donald Trump turning his head at just the right split second to only be grazed on the ear by a would-be assassin’s bullet.

Such events do not play out that way without, as George Washington would say, “the finger of providence” being in it.

Thanking God necessarily means we are acknowledging our dependence upon Him, and thus are acknowledging our need to trust and obey Him above all others as we continue to live.

We are thanking God with you this week! Together let us seek His wisdom and blessing as we work to improve Georgia. He has granted us a merciful reprievein the recent election results. Let us make the most of it.

We have not achieved success merely because Republicans were elected. We have achieved success when Republicans policies get enacted into law. So our work to provide accountability begins today.

If you are not currently engaged in the Republican Party, or if you would like to be more effective at advancing the principles and fighting off Democrats and Establishment RINOs, we invite you to contribute to our outreach in Georgia! Join the team of grateful warriors.

More GRA-Endorsed Legislative and Local Candidate Victories!

November 7, 2024 by Nathaniel Darnell in Election

The Georgia Freedom Caucus has another member among its ranks at the State Capitol. In spite of opposition and harassment from the Republican Establishment in Atlanta, our GRA-endorsed State House candidate Noelle Kahaian came out on top in her election for State House District 81 with 19,122 votes to the Democrat’s 14,392 votes. Noelle has been a patriot activist for several years working on common sense legislation to protect children from obscenity and harmful gender ideology in government schools and libraries. Her victory is particularly notable because she defeated a R.I.N.O. incumbent in the primary earlier this year.

Meanwhile, GRA-endorsed State Senator Colton Moore (R-53) resoundingly won re-election with 78.77% of the vote in Northwest Georgia. Moore has had the best vote score of any legislator in the Georgia General Assembly over the last term — a fact that seems to have sparked some jealously among the R.I.N.O.s in the State Senate who removed him from their Senate so-called “Republican” Caucus.

In other local down ballot races, several GRA-endorsed candidates also clinched it. For example, GRA member Keith Bowen won election as Miller County Commissioner, receiving 84% of the vote! Endorsed candidate Clyde McDaniel for Whitfield County Cornor won his race with 73% of the vote.

Still more GRA-endorsed candidates won without opposition in the general election, including State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-20), Tony Abernathy for Murray County School Board, and Ken Pullin for Pike County Board of Commissioners.

Record-Breaking Success in the 14th!

October 18, 2024 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

We’re in the final stretch of the general election campaign season, and the GRA is busy all across the state, working to make the biggest impact possible on November 5th!

Last week, several of us from the GRA Board were pleased to support our GRA-member Denise Burns, the Chairwoman of the 14th Congressional District GA GOP, in her special fundraiser dinner featuring hero journalist Tucker Carlson and GRA-endorsed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) at the beautiful new McClemore Resort in Senator Colton Moore‘s district of northwest Georgia. This event was primarily organized, promoted, and coordinated by GRA-members who lead the 14th District GA GOP Committee, especially Denise, Joanna Hildreth, and Jackie Harling, with help from others in the district.

As the Treasurer of the 14th GA GOP, I was thankful that the event turned out to be such a success. It was not the Buckhead corporate lobbyists who came to the rescue to sponsor the dinner, but many regular grassroots folks in north Georgia and Tennessee who admire the courageous efforts Tucker and Marjorie have taken for the well-being of the country — even when it has cost them dearly. The event ended up raising over $200,000 (gross), which is far more than we have ever seen a congressional district GOP organization in the state raise all at once!

In addition, at the dinner VoterGA‘s Garland Favorito presented Tucker with the “Truth in Journalism” award for exposing evidence of tampering and fraud from the 2020 election on his old FoxNews show before he was forced to leave that network.

Those of us on the 14th District Committee met shortly thereafter to put these hard-earned funds immediately to good use to help our key Republican nominees in the district facing Democrat opposition. GRA-endorsed candidate Gary Chaffee, for example, received the maximum contribution for his State House race. But the committee was also careful to reward only principled Republican candidates, not RINO incumbents who can get backing from Speaker Burn‘s House “Republican” Caucus, where their loyalties obviously lie. I’m proud of the committee for taking that approach. It is good to reward real Republicans who actually uphold and advance the principles of the platform.

Meanwhile, Georgia has been seeing new records of early voting turnout around the state. Have you voted yet?

*One of the friendly neighbors in my precinct I had the pleasure of meeting while canvassing for* candidate Brad Wheeler.

GRA members have been volunteering as poll workers and poll watchers. We’ve been out door-knocking and sign-waving for local Republican candidates. In-between the work, some of us have managed to squeeze in a rally or two with Trump or J.D. Vance.

There are only 15 days left before the polls close on Election Day. We need to make hay while the sun shines!

Tuesday evening GRA members will have a Zoom call with Trump attorney (and fellow graduate from my law school alma mater) Mark Meuser from California.

It will be vital that we be all on the same page and coordinated about how to handle any possible election fraud that comes to light on November 5th.

Since we still have to put up with the Dominion voting machine systems for this election, please be sure to encourage all of your friends and family to be careful to review their printed ballot before submitting it to ensure the selections match the choices made on the computer touch screen. There have already been reports of inaccurate printed ballots in some cases.

Let’s stay vigilant and keep pressing on for victory!

State Senator Brandon Beach Supports Removal of Duncan, Wants Moore Back in the Caucus, & Opposes Making County Commissions Non-Partisan

August 27, 2024 by Nathaniel Darnell in Issues

Woodstock, GA — State Senator Brandon Beac h (R-Alpharetta) last night spoke to a precinct dinner hosted by North Metro RA chapter President Richard Jordan in Cherokee County. Beach’s Senate district includes much of east Cherokee County and a portion of north Fulton County, and Beach faces Democrat opposition in the general election. He encouraged the attendees at the dinner to rally behind President Donald Trump in the race, and praised his integrity while highlighting how damaging the polices of the Biden / Harris administration have been over the last four years.

During the Q&A portion of his presentation, Beach answered a number of questions on a variety of issues. In particular, Beach expressed his support of GA GOP Chairman Josh McKoon‘s recent proposal to have the GA GOP Executive Committee vote to block Geoff Duncan from ever being able to qualify to run for office again as a Republican. “I don’t understand how you can consider yourself a conservative in any way if you support the radical agenda of Kamala Harris!” he said.

The GA GOP Executive Committee in early August decided to draft a proposal on that subject that will be voted on in a future meeting. The vote would only require a simple majority of the 28-member Executive Committee, or 15 votes. The GRA has been reminding the GA GOP of their power protected under the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and parallel provisions in the state constitution of a “right of association,” and we applaud this proposed action regarding Duncan. The GOP E.C. already possesses all the accountability power necessary to block fake Republicans like Duncan or Raffensperger and we are grateful for this step in the right direction.

On the other hand, Sen. Beach said that both he and Lt. Governor Burt Jones (R-Jackson) hoped the Senate Republican Caucus would welcome back Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) very soon. Sen. Moore was suspended from the Senate Republican Caucus last September for calling out fellow Republicans in the Senate for not supporting his proposal to sanction Fulton Democrat D.A. Fani Willis in her harassing lawsuit against former President Trump. Beach indicated that most of the tension on restoring that relationship is coming from the State Senate President Pro Tem Sen. John F. Kennedy (R-Macon).

When asked by former Cherokee GOP Chairman James Dvorak what he thought about the proposal from State Senator Ed Setzler (R-Cobb) to enable county commissions to become non-partisa n, Sen. Beach said he had not previously heard about that proposal but that he could not see a good reason to support it. “You pick your horse and you ride it,” said Beach.

*Marcia Cox reports on progress in Cherokee County.*

Beach also expressed his support of on-going Election Integrity reform. He reminded the audience that it was he and Burt Jones who ran afoul of then-Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan by speaking out on election integrity after the 2020 election, and they were punished by Duncan for doing so.

GRA-member Marcia Cox from Cherokee also gave a report at the meeting on outreach efforts in the county, and reported that the Cherokee GOP membership has grown to a record-breaking level as people are rallying together to help in the general election.

Participants at the meeting last night also got to meet Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s sweet mother who was in attendance.