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Saturday was a BIG DAY of successes for GRA chapters across the state as — even the uber-liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution had to admit in an article that — the “Georgia Republican Assembly and its allies mounted a series of successful operations” in county GOP conventions. This represents a tremendous movement in Georgia to reform the party so that its elected officials actually enact their professed Republican principles.

Contrary to some strange mantras, the purpose of the Republican Party is to advance principles (which made American great) and Republican policies as they have been described in our platforms over the decades — not to merely win elections. Winning elections is a means to an end to advance the principles. We have won many elections over the last 40 years, and yet little progress has been made in enacting Republican principles into law. But the Democrats have advanced their agenda, and not been afraid that it would make them lose elections.

Grassroots volunteers are getting tired of Republican elected officials ignoring policies such as real meaningful election integrity reform, medical freedom, gun rights, preborn equal protection rights, parental control over education, free markets, fiscal responsibility, and small government!We are ready for a change of direction. Republicans at the Gold Dome have been behaving too much like Democrats. Indeed, they vote with Democrats most of the time! The grassroots volunteers are moving the GOP away from the Establishment sycophants and toward a more accountability-minded administration.

“In Cherokee County, GRA-backed contenders swept leadership posts after a roughly nine-hour meeting,” reported the AJC in its recent The Jolt piece. “In Chatham County, GRA-backed delegates engineered a … takeover of the local party.”

The AJC went on to acknowledge that the GRA “scored wins by electing party leaders in Catoosa, Chatham, Cherokee, Coweta, DeKalb, Fulton, and Whitfield counties.” Actually, the AJC article failed to mention victories in many more counties besides these such as in Hart County where GRA-member Tim Roberts was elected the new county party Chairman. His brother Silas Roberts (President of the Hart County RA chapter) will serve on the local GOP board with him, along with former GRA-endorsed State House candidate Dylan Purcell.

In Cobb County, GRA-member Salleigh Grubbs won her re-election handily without opposition for Cobb GOP Chairwoman.

GRA Northwest GRA chapter President Eddie Caldwell was elected as the new Whitfield County GOP Chairman. His RA chapter’s Vice President Joanna Hildreth was easily re-elected as the Catoosa County GOP organization Chairwoman, and GRA-member Jackie Harling was elected Chairwoman of the Walker County GOP.

Some RA chapters had held endorsement conventions for party leadership candidates ahead of the county conventions. In DeKalb County, for example, Marci McCarthy was endorsed by the DeKalb RA chapter, and she was re-elected as DeKalb County GOP Chairwoman. Stephanie Endres was endorsed by the Fulton RA chapter and she also won election as the new Fulton GOP Chairwoman.

In south Georgia, SEGRA President Brittany Brown pulled off a win as the new Chatham County GOP Chairwoman. Winning in Chatham and Fulton was particularly gratifying since the Establishment had narrowly held these two counties two years ago, getting the county conventions either thrown out or re-done on appeals to the GA GOP State Committee.

In Fulton two years ago, the Establishment had used tiddly-winks to count the votes and declared a victory for the Establishment candidate with more votes than had been credentialed! (No wonder Fulton has such a problem with election integrity!)

A week earlier, GRA 1st Vice President Brant Frost V was re-elected as the Coweta County GOP Chairman, and GRA-member Jennifer Tudor was re-elected as the Chattooga County GOP Chairwoman.

Reports of more wins from GRA chapters and our allies continue to pour in from around the state. These wins send a clear message to Governor Brian Kemp and Speaker Jon Burns that the grassroots will not be ignored.

But the political industry and their sycophants decried the results, slinging mud at the victors by calling them “purists,” “white nationalists,” and other derogatory terms hypocritically in the name of “unity,” while suggesting that the GA GOP has become “irrelevant.”

As one party leader said, a complainer “tried really hard for 45 minutes on Saturday to become the precinct chair in his local GOP organization, and at the conclusion he declared the party ‘irrelevant.’ In other words, he lost.”

This spin seemed tailored to reinforce a message the AJC had reported two weeks earlier from the Governor’s office: “Governor urges donors to ditch ‘traditional’ party. Gov. Brian Kemp took his most significant step yet to break from the Georgia GOP and bolster his own growing political network, telling high-dollar donors that the 2022 midterm was a sign ‘we can no longer rely on the traditional party infrastructure …’. It seems that the folks in Atlanta had already seen the writing on the wall after the Precinct Caucus and knew that this was not going to be a year in which the Governor won a network of “yes-men” to run the GA GOP.

“Politicians are going to keep serving lobbyists,” said GRA President Alex Johnson, an attorney from DeKalb, “and ignoring the people unless and until politicians are accountable to the party and the people. If they don’t like accountability, they and their sycophants should go collect the signatures to run as Independent candidates instead of destroying the Republican brand.”

Now the next step in the effort proceeds to the congressional district conventions which take place on April 22nd.

At county GOP Conventions across the state, grassroots delegates voted to pass resolutions urging their Republican legislators to pass bills dealing with issues important to them. Two of the common issues address were ELECTION INTEGRITY and EQUAL PROTECTION from murder for pre-born babies.

The Cobb County GOP and the Gwinnett County GOP (the two largest Republican counties) were among those who passed resolutions calling for the state legislature to implement meaningful Election Integrity Reform. You can see the text from Cobb’s version of that resolution here (along with their other resolutions).

In addition, at least eight counties passed resolutions calling for Republicans in the state legislature to pass the Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which would protect pre-born babies from abortion murder from the moment of conception—just like the GA GOP platform says! That resolution was passed in Cherokee, Coweta, Haralson, Houston, Whitfield, Gordon, Banks, and Hart counties. You can see the text for it here.

Gwinnett County GOP also passed a resolution opposing Critical Race Theory and “gender therapy” in civil government schools.

You can check with your local congressional district GOP Resolutions Committee about presenting similar resolutions on these and other issues of concern at the District GOP Conventions on April 22nd. You can also see submit them to the Resolutions Committee for the GA GOP in June.

As the Republican Party convention approaches, it is critical that all GRA members are acquainted with the plan of action and understand the vital importance of their involvement. One of our goals is to reform the GOP from the inside (so that the GOP truly advances its professed principles,) and the conventions are an opportunity to make progress toward that goal. At the convention there will likely be a competition to see which faction of the party can successfully get more of their people into positions of leadership and on the delegate lists. 

At war in the GOP are two groups which we often call “the Establishment” (or “the Uni-Party”) and the Patriots.

Step 1: Know Your Opponents – The Establishment Activists

The Establishment (“Uni-Party”) is largely made up of RINO politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats, staffers who work for politicians, consultants and printers who produce campaign materials for politicians, and also a few well-intentioned but misguided patriots. Nearly all the members of the GOP Establishment are people who work for the political industry in some capacity. 

This Establishment group marches on dangerously because they have an inherent conflict of interest. The fact is that people who receive a paycheck from the industry are going to be far less objective in their evaluation of politicians’ behavior and their voting record, and far less likely to bring accountability to that entrenched industry. These Failed Establishment Operatives (ie. Karl Rove ad nauseum) have a strong incentive to remain in the good graces of the powerful political industry, because “after all,” an Establishment activist concludes, “they write my paycheck. If I offend the political class, I could lose my job, then how would I support myself and my family?”

These folks might have the best of intentions, but they have a strong incentive to protect RINOs from accountability, that is often too strong to overcome.

RINO politicians typically find implementing the principles of the GA GOP to be either “too extreme,” or just “not a good idea at this time,” because there is always an election approaching and we have to be “cautious about offending voters, ya know”… or any number of excuses like that. 

The Establishment group is obsessed with protecting the reputation of politicians whether the politician deserves it or not. An Establishment activist makes it their goal to ensure that everyone thinks the politician is wonderful. Whatever excuses they provide for their inaction, voting for Democrat policies, ignoring election fraud, ignoring the continued slaughter of babies, etc., is propagated to the broader GOP base in the most favorable, believable light possible.

Their loyalty is often entirely with the politicians, or at best it is divided between the principles of the Republican Party, and the politician they work for or lobby for while on the clock. They don’t want anyone to know the dirty little secret that most Republican officials vote contrary to the Republican Party platform about half the time as you can see on our Legislative Vote Scorecards.

They think wistfully, “If I’m loyal to this RINO now, and he is successful at climbing the ladder, maybe he will appoint me to a prestigious position (or a higher position) some day.”

Step 2: Know Yourself – The Patriot Activists

We call this group of GOP activists “Patriots” because, like the Founding Fathers they sacrifice time, toil, and treasure to make America more principled and more constitutional for the next generation.  They usually never make a dime from their political activism (in fact, they usually sacrifice many dimes,) and they are okay with that. They believe there is a transcendent source of law, as the founding fathers did when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence about the “laws of nature and of nature’s God.” They are not ashamed of America. They labor out of passion for the principles of the Republican Party (principles displayed in our founding documents) which have made America great. They are often infuriated by the outcome produced by Republican politicians who don’t do what they campaigned on when they get into power. 

People in this camp generally cling to the GA GOP platform; so that they can have a “measuring rod” for determining if officials are doing well or poorly at advancing Republican principles. You can see those here: https://gagop.org/resolutions/ 

This group is typically oriented toward accountability. 

When officials don’t advance Republican principles and instead govern as “Republicans In Name Only” (RINOs), activists in this accountability group call out the RINOs and expose their bad behavior in hopes of convincing enough of their fellow Republicans to vote them out next election. This group can often be seen circulating petitions, leading citizen lobbying, phone call & email campaigns to persuade Republicans to do the right thing.

Last Saturday county GOP organizations with populations of over 80,000 held their Precinct Caucus Meeting as the first step in the process for Georgia’s Republican convention season. Participants elected delegates to their county conventions and also elected precinct officers and other positions.

Participation overall appeared to be down compared to two years ago with some notable exceptions: Cherokee County, for example, reportedly had about 500 participants at their precinct caucus.

With the Precinct Caucus Meetings for the large counties now having been completed, delegates for these larger counties will next need to appear before their county GOP’s Nominating Committee to be interviewed and vetted if they desire to be considered for election as party officers, congressional district convention delegates, or state convention delegates.

In Cobb County, for example, the GRA’s NFRA Director Nathaniel Darnell was appointed by Cobb GOP Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs to serve as the Cobb GOP’s Nominating Committee Chairman. He announced that the committee would begin conducting interviews as early as February 15th at the Cobb GOP Headquarters in order for them to be able to finalize their recommendations several days before the county convention.

Most counties plan to host their county conventions on March 11th, although some are conducting them on March 4th. Be sure to check and see what date your county GOP convention will be held and pre-register as early as possible!

If you live in a county with a population under 80,000, your GOP Precinct Caucus will be held next month. Again, most under 80k counties plan to hold their precinct caucus and county conventions the same day on either March 11th or March 4th. Precinct caucuses for these smaller counties typically start at 9am and then the county conventions start at 10am. You will want to reach out to your local GOP organization for specific information about your local precinct caucus and county convention.

Bothered by politicians? Frustrated at the lack of accountability of elected officials? Want to help ensure a positive future for the country?

If so, it’s the time of the year again to take responsibility for the future of the Republican Party and help put the country back on track!

The Georgia Republican Party convention cycle is beginning this weekend. If you live in a county with over 80,000 people, this is the first step in the process to elect new party leadership from bottom to top, starting with your local precinct. This Saturday, February 11th, 2023, you have the opportunity to meet other Republicans in your precinct and elect new precinct officers, as well as delegates (including yourself) to the county convention. At the county convention, you elect officers there, as well as delegates to the district and state conventions.

You can read the reasons to be involved in this process from my messages on AdvancetheGOP, and if you look at all the historical messages at the bottom of my emails, you can read about a lot of the history of the GAGOP conventions over the past 10 years. Simply put, this is how you let your preferences be known: Do you want the GAGOP to simply follow weak politicians, or do you want the GAGOP to create accountability and to elect principled people to party and to public office?

You’ve done the work of helping get many of the GRA endorsed candidates from the last message (LINK) elected to public office, despite political “leadership” that lacked principles and didn’t care about you. Now it’s time to ensure the GAGOP is run by likeminded people as well.

You’ll be hearing plenty of promises from candidates for party office over the next few months, but little information about what they’ve actually done. You saw the cheating from two years ago (LINK). You need to show up to stop it from happening again.

Don’t fall for the tricks and deceptions of the paid political industry. There are plenty of people running for party office that falsely, and weakly believe that the GOP and its members only exist to by sycophants to politicians and to blindly support them and not hold them accountable to any sort of principles. There is nothing further from the truth.

The politicians exist to enact Republican principles and to serve the voters. Those running for party office who think otherwise are dooming the GOP to be irrelevant: discouraging participation and any broad based support from the public, due to lack of trust and accountability.

Hesitate to endorse or support anyone until you have all the information. Like last convention cycle (LINK), the GRA will be holding an endorsing convention prior to the State Convention, after receiving vetting report information (this is what we sent two years ago) about each candidate. Wait to hear and see all the real information before choosing who to support for state party office, as that’s what will determine the future of our party for the next two years.

Forward this to your friends. Come to the conventions. Help save and improve the party!

The Georgia Republican Assembly (and Other GOP Supportive Groups): In addition to my involvement in the GOP, I am also the President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) and the Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA), which is the Georgia chapter of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. We stand for accountability in politics to the Republican principles that help peoples’ lives. We are specifically targeting and gaining members quickly throughout Georgia (including, most importantly, those who have never previously been involved in politics), and I urge you to consider applying to join (assuming you support what we believe). We have local chapters in many counties throughout the state. This is to empower more Republicans so they will help us strengthen the GOP, grow local GOP chapters, and to ensure that the best candidates are nominated and elected to office (the things the State GOP is currently failing at).

Let’s work together to find ways to make the Republican Party brand strong. Let’s work together to ensure that Republican policies are enacted which, naturally, make our nation strong. Let’s work together to Advance the GOP.

If you want to spread this to others, forward it to your Republican friends and subscribe them to this mailing list. Together, we can all Advance the GOP in Georgia.

Thank you for your leadership in the Republican Party and commitment to its principles.