Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, we have finally completed the 2025 GRA Legislative Scorecards! Special thanks to our team of volunteers who devoted a large amount of time to collecting, sorting, and reviewing the data, and publishing it on our site. We have been publishing these scorecards longer than any other conservative organization — since 2017.

You can see the 2025 GRA Legislative Scores by clicking here. If you want to take a deep-dive into how the scores were earned on specific bills, you can also click here. Legislators in 2025 were evaluated by their votes on 66 substantive pieces of legislation (both House Bills & Senate Bills). That is far more bills than most other conservative organizations evaluate.

How We Evaluate

The state legislators are evaluated based on principles and policies that are and have been pillars of the Republican Party for years: Policies such as small government, less regulation, parental rights, gun rights, equal protection for all human life, low taxes, fiscal responsibility, etc.

One thing that makes our GRA Legislative Scorecards different, too, is that since last year we have started to include a 20% bonus credit for legislators who sponsored or co-sponsored excellent bills—whether they made it out of committee for a vote or not. This is because we have observed over the years how officials like the GA Speaker of the House or RINO committee chairs will often hold up good bills in committee and never allow them a hearing or vote, and we believed that our patriot legislators willing to promote good legislation, even when they are standing alone doing so, deserve credit for that courage.

Even so, this year, we have separated out the proportion of the score that was from their votes in the chamber verses their sponsorships so you would be able to evaluate both. We did this because we significantly increased the number of bills legislators could earn bonus credit on for sponsorships, and we wanted to allow you to be able to attribute the weight to each in your own minds.

The results of the scorecard evaluation are both encouraging and disturbing in different ways. On the positive side, we are pleased to report that the number of “A”-rated Republican legislators has continued to increase from four to five. Under our current system, a legislator who earns 80% or higher gets an “A” (following Ronald Reagan’s formula about 80 percenters). Over the years, very few state legislators have earned 80% or more.

The Best Performers

We were particularly glad to see the newest addition to the GA Freedom Caucus, Noelle Kahaian (R-Henry), added to the plus 80% club! It was great to see her integrity and courage under pressure in the legislature this last session. She earned a 96% vote score and a 100% score with her sponsorships added to the equation. She came in third place only behind Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Cherokee) with a 98% vote score, and Sen. Colton Moore (R-Dade) with a 100% vote score.

In the GRA Bylaws, we have a rule that if a state legislator who is a GRA member scores lower than 80% for two years in a row, that person is “automatically” removed from GRA membership.

The Problem

On the more disturbing side of the evaluation, our review exposed that the most popular section for “Republican” legislators at the Georgia State Capitol was the “D” section (those who earn between 49% and 40%) with 68 “Republican” legislators belonging to that category. That is more than half (51%) of all the 133 “Republican” legislators at the state capitol!

Add to that the “Republican” legislators in the “F” section (those earning 39% or lower), which was 22, and then you have 90 so-called “Republican” legislators of the 133 who more often vote for Democrat policies in the legislature than they do policies that match the Republican principles and platform. That means that only 33% of the Republican legislators at the state capitol vote for Republican policies over Democrat policies at least most of the time. That’s truly pathetic!

Overall, the State Senate Republican Caucus did slightly better than the State House Republican Caucus. At least the Senate Republican Caucus had no members who fell into the “F” section this year.

The Worst Performers

The worst RINO in the legislature in 2025 was Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville) with an “F” score of 30 percent. There were seven Democrats who had better voting scores than he had!

The best Democrat was Rep. Lynn Heffner (D-Augusta) who, with a score of 41%, performed better this year than 25 so-called “Republican” state legislators! This is demonstrable evidence that we have genuine “RINOs” in the state legislature.

Creating awareness of the extent of the problem with RINO-ness (or what some call “the Uni-Party”) is the first step to fixing the problem. Many are still in denial that we have a RINO problem in the Republican legislative caucuses. We cannot coordinate to build accountability for our Republican legislators if our activists are not first aware of how bad the conditions are.

Although Republicans made wins up and down, far and wide, on Tuesday there was one area in Georgia GOP circles where enthusiasm was more muted.

Democrats reportedly took two seats away from Republicans in the GA State House. One of the lost seats was from Rep. Mesha Mainor, who had been a Democrat who switched parties mid-term.

The Georgia State House Republican Caucus has been slowly diminishing its majority in the legislature since 2016, first under David Ralston‘s leadership and now under his successor Jon Burns. In 2020, Republicans lost five seats in the State House. In 2018, Republicans lost nine seats. Not since the election of 2016, when President Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton, have Republicans in the State House not lost seats in their caucus. 

But even Trump’s coattails were not able to keep the State House “Republican” Caucus from losing seats this year. Indeed, even with Governor Brian Kemp campaigning and financially supporting the incumbent GOP caucus candidates so heavily, reports are showing that they appear to have lost two seats in the State House this week.

During the wave of the T.E.A. Party movement in the first half of the 2010s, Republicans saw steady gains in the Georgia legislature and across the country. But as Republicans have failed to live up to the promises of reform made under that movement, Republican voters have grown increasingly disillusioned.

The State House has also developed a reputation of being the more Left-leaning of the two legislative chambers at the State Capitol. They have blocked and watered down Election Integrity reform, they pushed the notorious ominous “Mental Health Parity” bill (socialized medicine), they have locked up pro-life and medical freedom legislation so that it is not even allowed to be discussed in committee, etc., etc., etc. This year they sanctioned State Sen. Colton Moore when he accurately began to speak on the harmful legacy of the late Speaker David Ralston. 

About the only significant positive achievement the House can claim is the appointment of Janelle King to the state Elections Board this year.

Even this year’s legislative accomplishments touted were a mixed bag, such as the election integrity reforms that don’t do into effect until two years from now, or the “school choice” voucher system that will likely lead to new government intrusions into private education (“with shekels come shackles”).

However, we are not discouraged because GRA members are making huge strides to provide needed accountability to our state legislators! When Republican politicians don’t advance true Republican policy, GRA members are ready to expose the truth to the voters in their community. GRA members are using our scorecards across the state to inform the electorate, organize local chapters, recruit and endorse principled candidates, and sacrifice the time and treasure required to save our state from fake Republicans. 

If you would like to help continue building on the successes of the last year, please consider becoming a GRA member today!