Blog

All Blog Posts

Banks Wise, Treasurer

Banks Wise, Treasurer

As the Treasurer, Banks Wise manages the finances of the organization. He has been involved in the Republican Party as a volunteer activist for over a decade, first getting involved in the presidential races of Congressman Ron Paul from Texas. He resides in Cherokee County and works in an accounting firm. He has previously worked as a campaign manager for several successful State House races and worked as those elected Republican legislators’ Chief of Staff and their political advisor.

Denise Burns, Assistant Secretary

Denise Burns, Assistant Secretary

Denise Burns was elected as the Assistant Secretary of the GRA at the State Convention in December of 2021. She has been a GRA member in good standing for many years, and was also first elected the 14th Congressional District GA GOP Chairman in May of 2021. She was reelected to that position in 2023. She lives in the Walker County / Catoosa County area, has been a good long-term friend of Secretary Joanna Hildreth, and she assists Joanna with the official correspondence on behalf of the GRA.

Abigail Darnell, 3rd Vice President

Abigail Darnell, 3rd Vice President

Abigail Hope Darnell (formerly Abigail Hope Cochran) grew up in Whitfield County in northwest Georgia before marrying Nathaniel Darnell in the summer of 2020. She is the grateful mother of their first child Patience Hope Darnell, who was born in November of 2021. She is the eldest daughter among seven children belonging to Crystal Cochran and CPA Keith Cochran, and worked at his accounting firm for many years. She has also been heavily active in Georgia Right to Life, helping her family organize and run the northwest chapter of GRTL beginning in 2016. In 2019 she was elected as the Vice President of Georgia Right to Life by the state board, serving under Ricardo Davis, the President of that organization. She was re-elected to that position in August 2021. She served for five years as Secretary on the board of the L’Abri Symphony, a non-profit community orchestra in Dalton, Georgia, and has trained and volunteered with the Center for Bioethical Reform, doing campus outreach and street activism. In addition, she has served as a field reporter and correspondent for David Tulis’s radio show based in Chattanooga. Abigail served as 3rd Vice President originally in 2021, and was re-elected to that position at the GRA State Convention in December of 2021 for another term.

Abigail Darnell, 3rd Vice President

Abigail Darnell, 3rd Vice President

Abigail Hope Darnell (formerly Abigail Hope Cochran) grew up in Whitfield County in northwest Georgia before marrying Nathaniel Darnell in the summer of 2020. She is the grateful mother of their first child Patience Hope Darnell, who was born in November of 2021. She is the eldest daughter among seven children belonging to Crystal Cochran and CPA Keith Cochran, and worked at his accounting firm for many years. She has also been heavily active in Georgia Right to Life, helping her family organize and run the northwest chapter of GRTL beginning in 2016. In 2019 she was elected as the Vice President of Georgia Right to Life by the state board, serving under Ricardo Davis, the President of that organization. She was re-elected to that position in August 2021. She served for five years as Secretary on the board of the L’Abri Symphony, a non-profit community orchestra in Dalton, Georgia, and has trained and volunteered with the Center for Bioethical Reform, doing campus outreach and street activism. In addition, she has served as a field reporter and correspondent for David Tulis’s radio show based in Chattanooga. Abigail served as 3rd Vice President originally in 2021, and was re-elected to that position at the GRA State Convention in December of 2021 for another term.

Brant Frost V, 1st Vice President

Brant Frost V, 1st Vice President

Brant is the Chairman of the Coweta County Republican Party (CCRP) serving since March 2013. He previously served as 1st Vice Chairman of the CCRP from 2011 to 2013 and served as a delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Brant was born and raised in Georgia and has lived in Coweta County since childhood. Brant or “Five” (as his friends call him) has served as a volunteer in the campaigns of Gary Bauer, Saxby Chambliss, and Sonny Perdue. He also served as county campaign manager for Jeff Chapman and Max Wood in 2010.

In 2010, Brant was appointed to serve as Vice Chairman of the Newnan Urban Redevelopment Agency. In 2013, he was appointed Chairman of the agency.

In 2011, Brant was elected as 1st Vice Chair of the Coweta County Republican Party (CCRP). In late 2011, Brant worked closely with Mike Crane in Crane’s successful bid to win a special election to the state senate. Brant would go on to serve as a legislative aide to Senator Crane in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 sessions of the Georgia General Assembly. In April 2012, Brant was elected to represent the Third Congressional District of Georgia to the Republican National Convention in Tampa serving as the youngest delegate from Georgia.

Brant was elected as Chairman of the CCRP without opposition in March of 2013; and elected to the GAGOP State Committee on April 20, 2013. In March 2015, Brant was re-elected CCRP Chairman unopposed. Also in March, Brant successfully led the effort to stop a proposed rules change to the GAGOP rules that would have created greater obstacles to participation in the party process.

Brant served on the Resolutions Committee at the 2012 and 2013 GAGOP state conventions. He is a co-founder of GeorgiaCaucus.org and has written for zpolitics.com as well as other political websites. As a young Christian Conservative Brant has always striven to conduct himself in a manner that would be a credit to his Lord, his family, and his country.

Catherine Bernard, NFRA Director from Georgia

Catherine Bernard, NFRA Director from Georgia

Catherine Bernard has served as the lady junior NFRA National Director for Georgia, succeeding Debra Williams. In addition, Catherine has developed a reputation as a successful criminal defense attorney in Georgia. In 2012 she was elected as a delegate to the National Republican Convention. She has also been the Republican nominee for two State House races in urban DeKalb. She and her husband Eric reside in DeKalb County.

Nathaniel Darnell, NFRA Director from Georgia

Nathaniel Darnell, NFRA Director from Georgia

Nathaniel has served as the NFRA Director of the GRA since 2021, succeeding Ron Hooper in that position. The year before that, as the 3rd Vice President of the GRA and as the Chairman of the Cobb County Republican Assembly since 2017. He also was elected as the Vice Chair of Communications for the Cobb County Republican Party in 2019 and continued to serve in that capacity in 2020. He first started working in Georgia Republican politics in 1996, working for eight different Republican state legislators over the course of eight legislative sessions, including Tom Graves in his freshman year as a state representative, and Casey Cagle when he was still a minority-party state senator. He also served State Senator Mike Crane (R-Newnan), State Rep. Mitchell Kaye (R-Cobb), State Senator Billy Ray (R-Gwinnett), and others. He has served as a state committee member for the Georgia Republican Party in the 11th Congressional District for seven years, as the Executive Director of the Cobb County Republican Party for three years. Nathaniel holds a juris doctorate with Oak Brook College of Law and works as a licensed financial advisor and insurance professional in Georgia.