While GRA members all over the state were busy winning elections to GOP office, at the 8th Congressional District GOP Convention in Bleckley County, delegates were entertaining a resolution that reportedly “condemned the Georgia Republican Assembly.” Austin Futch served as the Chairman of the 8th District Resolutions Committee. This was one of only two resolutions brought forward by the Resolutions Committee in that congressional district.
Out of the 161 delegates at the convention, witnesses reported that only 10 people supported the resolution. One delegate reported that the resolution “talked about building, [and] yet they tear down. Delegates realized that and there was a lot of pushback.
On Saturday many District GOP Conventions advanced resolutions that promoted historic Republican principles and called for accountability from GOP legislators. In both the 14th and 3rd Districts, for example, those conventions overwhelmingly passed resolutions supporting legislation such as the Prenatal Equal Protection Act that would completely abolish abortion in Georgia. Regretfully, that legislation was assigned by State House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) to the Public Health Committee, Chaired by State Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Cobb), who has not allowed the bill to come before the committee for a discussion or vote. You can read the full text of that resolution (with scrivener errors corrected) at this link.
In addition, numerous Election Integrity resolutions passed at these conventions — both as recommended from their District Resolutions Committees and as introduced from the floor. In the 14th District, for example, a resolution was introduced from the floor and passed that called for the state to get rid of open primaries and to oppose rank-choice voting.
The members of the 14th District GOP Resolutions Committee
Several resolutions called out Republican elected lawmakers by name both for praise as well as for censure. The 3rd District, for example, reprimanded Congressman Drew Ferguson for failing to take “bold action in defense of Americans unjustly treated after January 6th.” Both the 3rd and 14th Districts passed resolutions against H.B. 520 (“Mental Health” bill) that was recently stalled in the state legislature after it passed in the State House with only three Republicans voting against it.
That resolution in the 14th District praised GRA-endorsed State Rep. Mitchell Horner (R-Ringgold) for being one of the three Republican legislators who voted against H.B. 520. Horner is also a member of the Georgia Freedom Caucus.
State Rep. Mitchell Horner (center) with our NFRA Director & 3rd Vice President
“Be it Resolved that the 14th District GOP expresses their gratitude to Rep. Mitchell Horner (R-Ringgold) HD-3 for having the courage to vote ‘No’ to this egregious legislation.
“Be it further Resolved that the 14th District GOP expresses their grave disappointment in all the Republicans who voted for this legislation, including:
“Rep. Mike Cameron (R-Rossville) HD 1 “Rep. Steve Tarvin (R-Chickamauga) HD 2 “Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton) HD 4 “Rep. Matt Barton (R-Calhoun) HD 5 “Rep. Jason Ridley (R-Chatsworth) HD 6 “Rep. Eddie Lumsden (R-Armuchee) HD 12 “Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) HD 13 “Rep. Trey Kelley (R-Cedartown) HD-16 “Rep. Martin Momtahan (R-Dallas) HD-17 “Rep. Joseph Gullett (R-Dallas) HD-19 “Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-Marietta) HD-36”.
Last Saturday, Republican Assembly members from Cobb, Cherokee, Pickens, Gwinnett, and Fulton counties met to hear speeches and interviews with candidates for District Party office in the 11th and the 6th—and to vote on endorsing many of these candidates!
Videos with the Congressional District GOP Chair & 1st Vice Chair candidates are available to view here and here, respectively. All Chair candidates who were not able to attend in person were also invited to submit a video presentation. Donna Watson, candidate for 6th District GOP Chairwoman, submitted a video on her candidacy, however Dr. Lisa Adkins, who is running for re-election as 11th District Chairwoman did not submit a video. Adkins is being challenged by attorney David Oles who attended. Watson has competition from Jerry Marrinich.
Click to watch the District Chairman Candidate panel.
Attorney David Oles wins the endorsement for 11th District GOP Chairman!
David Oles won the endorsement for 11th District GOP Chairman, but no candidate was able to get the two-thirds votes necessary to win endorsement in the 6th District GOP Chairman’s race.
For the 1st Vice Chairman’s race, attendees heard from Richard Jordan from Cherokee (running for 1st Vice Chairman in the 6th), Chris Mora from Pickens (running for re-election as 1st Vice Chairman in the 11th), and John Beville from Cobb (running for 1st Vice Chairman in the 6th). Absent was Joel Allen from Cobb who has also declared his candidacy in this race. You can watch the video of that candidate panel here.
Richard Jordan won the endorsement for 6th District GOP 1st Vice Chair and Chris Mora won the endorsement for 11th District GOP 1st Vice Chair.
Click to watch the District 1st Vice Chairman Candidate panel.
Attendees listening to the candidates at the GRA District Endorsement Convention
In addition to these candidates, attendees got to hear stump speeches from candidates for various officer positions in these two District organizations and from candidates for state committee. YouTube initially removed the video of these messages (for violating their “community guidelines” by making reference to election fraud) but it has been restored on our GRA YouTube channel, which you can currently watch here.
Click to see the stump speeches from the other candidates.
Below is a preliminary list of candidates who won endorsement at this Republican Assembly District Endorsement Convention for particular positions.
We hope this list will serve as a helpful guide for strong conservative Republican delegates wanting to get the best GOP leaders elected at the 6th & 11th GOP Congressional District Conventions this coming Saturday, April 22nd.
Endorsed District Candidates:
11th District GOP Chair: David Oles
11th District GOP 1st Vice Chair: Chris Mora
11th District GOP Vice Chairman of Communications: James Dvorak
11th District GOP Vice Chair of Events: No Endorsement
11th District GOP Vice Chair of Fundraising: Kelly Sirios
11th District GOP Treasurer: Ann Marie Cosway
11th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: Marcia Cox
11th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: Sandy Docherty
11th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: Todd Smith
11th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: Andy Reprieto
11th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: James Dvorak
11th District GOP State Committee from Cobb: Alicia Adams
11th District GOP State Committee from Pickens: Carolyn Childers
6th District GOP Chair: No Endorsement
6th District GOP 1st Vice Chair: Richard Jordan
6th District GOP Assistant Secretary: Katie Perry
6th District GOP Vice Chair: Siegfried Jucknies
6th District GOP State Committee from Cobb: Michael Optiz
6th District GOP State Committee from Cobb: Tess Redding
6th District GOP State Committee from Cherokee: Honey Burfield
Flowery Branch, GA—Saturday at the 9th Congressional District GA GOP Convention, hundreds of Republican delegates from northeast Georgia voted overwhelmingly to defeat a proposed resolution that would have celebrated the life and political legacy of the late Speaker David Ralston (R-Ellijay). The 9th Congressional District encompasses Ralston’s old State House District. Resolutions Committee Chairman Stephen Aaron from Gilmer County had drafted the resolution and reportedly told the other Resolutions Committee members that the Ralston resolution was “non-negotiable” even though he was warned against presenting it.
The newly elected slate of officers in the 9th Congressional District GA GOP
GA GOP National Committeeman Jason Thompson presided over the 9th District GA GOP Convention. A package of resolutions including the Ralston resolution were originally presented to be voted on at the District Convention altogether, but the body at the convention instead voted to address each resolution individually. When the Ralston resolution was presented, delegates reported that it was “decisively defeated” by a voice vote.
In previous years prior to his death, GA GOP conventions have passed resolutions publicly reprimanding Speaker David Ralston for his bad leadership in the Georgia State House, when he has often squelched conservative Republican policies and legislation ranging from gun rights to pro-life advancements to election integrity and more, while fast-tracking Coporate Cronyist legislation and big-government expansions. He had persecuted fellow Republican legislators more conservative than him. He has also been publicly reprimanded for abusing his political office in his attorney practice.
While it is one thing to express public condolences to Ralston’s family and friends for his passing late last year, it has been shameful how many Republican officials in Atlanta have made public statements praising the late Speaker’s political legacy and implying that he was a model politician that others should emulate. At the time many of these statements were posted, we shared on our Twitter feed a quote from Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, which he providentially made on that same day: “Not every person who dies necessarily deserves to be mourned. You don’t become a good person just because you happen to die.”
We are pleased that this resolution was resoundingly defeated, and we hope that the politicians will take note that their behavior on this subject has been shown to be completely out of sync with the Republican grassroots in Georgia. The late Speaker David Ralston’s example as a politician was deplorable and Republicans in the state legislature should not follow in his example.
You can see the text of the defeated resolution in the image below here:
Are you tired of GOP officers being “yes men” and covering for bad Republican politicians—who vote like Democrats? Do you want the Georgia to be in a strong position for the elections next year? This is your opportunity to help reform the Republican Party in Georgia!
The Georgia Republican Assembly has announced its state-wide Endorsement Convention to hear from and potentially endorse candidates for GA GOP Chairman and other officer positions. The State Endorsement Convention will be held on Saturday, April 29th at the American Legion building in Smyrna, GA. You can register for the event here.
Remember that in order to vote in a GRA Endorsement Convention, you must have been approved as a GRA member before the convention day. If you would like to apply to become a GRA member, you can join here.
As with all our endorsement conventions, it takes a two-thirds majority of our participating members for a candidate to earn the endorsement of the organization. This is a great opportunity for you to meet like-minded new friends with political passion from across the state! Lunch is included in the registration.
All GA GOP Chair candidates are invited to speak at this event! We also invite all other candidates for state party office to come and share.
Former President Donald Trump speaking at the NFRA Convention
In addition to voting on state endorsements, the GRA State Convention this year will also be electing delegates to represent the GRA at the NFRA’s National Endorsement Convention in Orlando, Florida in October. This year RA delegates at the NFRA Convention will vote on endorsing a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. You could be one of the delegates selected to vote on this critical endorsement.Let us know if you are interested in being considered for this opportunity as soon as possible!
Here is the important information about this State Endorsement Convention:
State Republican Assembly 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!
The North Metro & Cobb GRA chapters’ “Candidate Endorsement Convention” for the 11th & 6th Congressional District is scheduled for April 15th at 11am-2:00pm with registration opening today.
Location: Cherokee Charter Academy 2126 Sixes Road Canton, GA 30114
REGISTRATION Includes Lunch! $19.95 at door. Early Bird Special (if registered before April 7th) : $14.95
Hear Candidates from 6th & 11th District to learn more about the candidates.
Become a GRA Member before April 7th to be eligible to vote. A 2/3 majority is needed for a candidate to be endorsed.
The Cobb County GOP sends close to the largest delegation to the state convention most years. It also sends delegations to four congressional districts conventions now.
In the past, elected officials have usually been placed at the front of the line to serve as delegates, even though many of these elected officials stand on the sidelines and don’t participate in controversial votes at the conventions, so as not to upset their constituents. Their delegate votes thus are often wasted.
This year the Nominating Committee for Cobb County adopted a new policy: “We chose to prioritize and give preference to our hard-working grassroots volunteers in the county who have labored to help the organization, the cause, and candidate campaigns completely at their own expense—without expecting any financial reward— over elected officials,” said Cobb Nominating Committee Chairman Nathaniel Darnell. Nathaniel also serves as the Chairman for the Cobb County RA chapter. Chris Deeb, the President of the Cobb RA chapter, served as Vice Chairman of the Nominating Committee. Nine other conservatives, activists, and former candidates from the county also served on the committee.
Other members of the 2023 Cobb County GOP Nominating Committee
“This was not to disrespect any Republican elected official in Cobb County, but rather to honor the many men and women upon whose shoulders they stand: our grassroots volunteers,” Nathaniel continued. As a result, all Cobb County elected officials were placed on the alternate list by default during early Nominating Committee deliberations. By the conclusion, the committee voted to remove only one Cobb Republican elected official from both the delegate and alternate lists due to bad behavior in the state legislature.
Nathaniel Darnell, Cobb RA Chairman & GRA NFRA Director
This policy represents a shift in thinking within the Georgia Republican Party: Instead of the grassroots being treated as being at the bottom of the totem pole with the elite elected officials, corporate lobbyists, and paid political industry riding on their backs, true self-sacrificing Patriots were given the foremost respect.
These are people with nothing to gain from their activism (other than just working to make the world a better place). We suggest that this group is more likely to be objective about what is best for the party, since they aren’t thinking about how to climb the ladder or make money in the political industry.
While some paid members of the political industry, such as Brittany Ellison from east Cobb (who has also publicly posted false and vulgar attacks about fellow Republicans on her social media), took to the microphone to complain about being nominated as merely an alternate behind grassroots volunteers, no one at the Cobb County GOP Convention complained about the elected officials taking a back seat. No one made a motion to move up an elected official in Cobb from an alternate to a delegate position. The Nominating Committee’s policy concerning elected officials was therefore approved by the body at the county convention.
Those who sacrificially give of their “three Ts” (their time, their treasure, and their talents) expecting no personal enrichment, should always be given such preference. They are the heart and soul of the Republican Party.
In Cherokee County, as the county convention was still going on into the evening on Saturday, several delegates reported that current District 11 Chairwoman Lisa Adkins from Cobb County showed up and began circulating a petition to collect signatures to have the convention results thrown out. “Our convention wasn’t even over yet!” said North Metro RA Chairman Richard Jordan. “If they thought something was wrong, we still had time to fix it, but instead they were working to have the convention thrown out because they didn’t like the results. Sounds like a big conflict of interest for the District 11 Chairwoman to be circulating that petition.”
Some delegates have reported that their names were forged on the petition document without their permission, and others have said that they signed it without knowing what it was and want their names removed from it now.
Dr. Lisa Adkinsfrom Cobb County
Ensuring Cherokee’s district delegates were thrown out could potentially increase Dr. Lisa Adkins chances of winning re-election at the District 11 Convention on April 22nd. Adkins had voted two years ago on the state committee to over-turn “America First” candidate Susan Opraseuth‘s election as Fulton County GOP Chairwoman, and has in other ways aligned herself with the interests of the Establishment in Atlanta. Her husband Roy Adkins has spread maligning material against the GRA on social media. Lisa was originally elected as District 11 GOP Chair not by a convention of delegates but by the District 11 GOP Committee after redistricting when the previous District 11 Chair was moved to a different congressional district.
Attorney David Oles from Pickens County
She is being challenged for District 11 Chair by attorney David Oles of Pickens County. Oles announced his campaign for District 11 Chairman on Monday morning, March 13th.
When asked directly about her involvement in the petition that circulated at the Cherokee County Convention, Lisa Adkins denied personally initiating the petition or telling anyone directly to disseminate it. She did, however, admit to going to the Cherokee County Convention after the Cobb County Convention ended and admitted to advising a group on how to create such a petition before the Cherokee convention was completed (rather than advising them on how to correct the alleged underlying concerns with the county convention before it ended so that it wouldn’t need to be thrown out), including telling them how many signatures would be required, and what the process would be to submit it to review to her District 11 Committee for appeal. “Even that degree of involvement from her,” said a delegate, “makes her an accessory to the effort, which she had no business getting involved in. The conflict of interest concern still stands.”
Meanwhile, current 6th District Chairman Joel Natt is also reportedly looking to see if the Fulton County GOP delegation would be thrown out on a technicality because the previous administration supposedly was late in sending in their newspaper notice of the event. Such an error would have been by the previous administration, not the newly elected one, and arguably had little to no impact on the outcome, if it actually happened.
These cases seem to be yet another example of the Establishment refusing to accept an outcome where they do not win. It appears to be a repeat of the trick used with Fulton and Chatham County when they lost county elections there two years ago.
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.
Salleigh Grubbs and her new Cobb GOP Executive Committee after winning re-election
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.”
Tim Roberts from Hart County
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.
Eddie Caldwell from Whitfield County
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.
Stephanie Endres of Fulton County
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.
Governor Brian Kemp
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.
GRA President Alex Johnson
“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.
