Atlanta, GA — Today, Judge Dominic Capraro at the State Office of Administrative Hearings released a decision that all allegations that the Georgia Republican Assembly and GRA-PAC broke the law are unfounded. Both organizations are innocent of the ethics commission’s frivolous complaint.

The decision stated: “In accordance with the foregoing findings of fact and conclusions of law, the Court finds that the Respondents are not in violation of the Act as alleged in the Commission’s Statement of Matters Asserted and, therefore, no sanction is due.”

GRA Chairman Alex Johnson, who is also an attorney, stated: ”It is standard practice for the paid political industry and spineless politicians to try to silence effective volunteers that are trying to hold them accountable. We are glad Judge Capraro was able to see through this and reach the correct outcome in this matter.”

On May 13th, Georgia Republican Assembly NFRA Director & attorney Catherine Bernard represented the GRA in the hearing for the complaint against the now terminated GRA-PAC. The State Ethics Commission previously added the GRA Inc., the membership organization, to the complaint suggesting that the membership organization was one-in-the-same with the GRA-PAC which is not true.

Timothy Baywal, staff attorney for the Georgia Ethics Commission, was the primary witness and after Bernard’s brilliant cross-examination, he had to walk back his position from last December and thoroughly contradicted the legacy media’s narrative.

“It was never my position that they were trying to pump dark money into elections,” Baywal testified under oath.

“I don’t think anybody was trying to do anything illegal or unlawful,” said Baywal.

Baywal admitted on the witness stand that GRA-PAC’s expenditures were in fact disclosed to the State Ethics Commission.

“All of these were disclosed in GRA-PAC filings. I was never claiming they weren’t disclosed. They were disclosed improperly,” said Baywal.

The Judge’s decision reveals that expenditures of the GRA PAC were not disclosed improperly, as Baywal alleged, because the statutory definition of an independent committee is an entity which is explicitly “not a Political Action Committee” (O.C.G.A. § 21-5-3(15) (2025)). Judge Capraro found that, since both entities “do not meet the definition of an independent committee, they cannot be considered to be in violation of Georgia Code Section 21-5-34(f), and no sanction is authorized.”

This is a huge vindication for the GRA and will come as a massive disappointment to the Establishment operatives in the GOP who thought they smelled blood in the water. An AJC reporter attended only a portion of the hearing, and it is likely this vindication of the GRA will be entirely ignored by the far-left news media who care more about spreading propaganda and casting shade on conservative groups than reporting the truth or correcting their previous articles.

Attorney General Chris Carr, one of the politicians in the Atlanta swamp that GRA members frequently criticize for his inaction on important issues, formally called for the hearing against the GRA and put out a press release before the primary smearing the GRA with allegations that are now proven to be unsubstantiated.

The attorney arguing against the GRA was Elizabeth Young, who works for Carr at the Georgia Department of Law, and who recently represented out-going Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the electoral challenge to his candidacy for Governor.

“We thank the judge for his clear-eyed ruling in this case – a ruling that proves that this case was nothing but a blatant attempt at lawfare against the GRA from the very beginning,” said Dr. Nick Cooper, GRA 1st Vice President. “We’ve shown the political establishment that if they try to intimidate us into silence, we will not back down and capitulate. We will always stand on our principles, and our principles are uncompromising.”

The GRA-PAC dissolved last summer. As long as the GRA PAC was supporting principled, candidates with backbone like Sen. Colton Moore (R-Dade), State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Cherokee), and others, the affiliation and support was mutual. The GRA supports numerous organizations with which we have common cause through our newsletters, social media, event sponsorships, and donations.

But the two organizations always maintained separate bank accounts and governance, and it is important to note that while the membership organization previously donated to the GRA-PAC, the GRA-PAC did not donate to the membership organization.

The GRA has not hesitated to call this complaint against them political harassment ever since the five-member body of the State Ethics Commission started pursuing this complaint. The commission employees Baywal and referred this complaint to the administrative judge back in December of 2025. That Ethics Commission includes three members appointed by the Governor, one appointed by the State Senate Committee on Assignments, and one appointed by the State Speaker of the House. These appointees are ultimately beholden to the very political Establishment that GRA members frequently expose and are working to replace.

One of the facts revealed in Mr. Baywal’s testimony was that former Cobb GOP Chairman, Jason Shepherd, who was the attorney that originally helped incorporate the GRA-PAC, visited Baywal’s office to meet with him about the complaint against the GRA and that Shepherd had submitted emails as “evidence” to bait the Ethics Commission with the complaint. He also made statements to the media parroting Baywall’s allegations against his former client — the GRA-PAC and suggesting wrongdoing on part of the GRA.

We are grateful that, in spite of relentless attacks and smear attempts, the members of the Georgia Republican Assembly can continue our important mission and protect Georgia families from the harmful policies of Democrats — and Democrats disguised as Republicans. We remain the “Republican wing of the Republican Party.”

Ringgold, GA — On Tuesday, primary voters in Catoosa County voted 77% in favor of having the local Republican Party organization protect the Republican Primary ballot from undercover Democrat candidates.

The question read: “Do you believe that anyone, even closet Democrats, should be able to run on the Republican primary ballots?”

76.82% of Republican voters said, “No.”

This comes after the Catoosa GOP attempted to deny specific commission candidates a place on the primary ballot who had a track record of imposing anti-Republican policies.

In case there was any confusion, Catoosa voters made it abundantly clear when a whopping 85%, 87% and 89% answered “yes” to the following:

11. “Do you want the Republican Party to ensure our candidates for office are for gun rights?”

12. “Do you want the Republican Party to ensure our candidates for office are for lower taxes?”

13. “Do you want the Republican Party to ensure our candidates for office are pro-life?”

Ballot questions like these are non-binding surveys but are used by local and state parties to guage what Republican voters (who never attend party meetings or events) actually think about the issues. Ballot questions are valuable because the results help guide the party, and inform Republican politicians what their constituents want and believe.

“I don’t pay too much attention to local politics, unfortunately, and that’s why I really appreciate the local GOP keeping these people accountable and ensuring that only true Republicans are actually on the ballot,” said Joseph Cochran, a GenX Catoosa voter.

While the Establishment and leftist media suggest that Catoosa GOP’s volunteer leadership team is a radical fringe group who are out of touch with everyday Republican voters, and that primary voters want to do their own personal vetting of all candidates’ ideology, this data proves that three out of four Republican voters in Catoosa county actually want the Republican Party to vet candidates before they are allowed on the Republican ballot.

“What I noticed from reading the answers to the ballot questions,” said GRA Chairman & attorney Alex Johnson, “is that over 76% of Catoosa County Republican voters don’t want anyone who wants to, to be able to run on the Republican Primary ballot, and over 84% of them want the party to ensure candidates are for lower taxes, gun rights, and Prolife.”

They want someone from the party ensuring a candidate meets a minimum standard. They don’t think their selection in the voting booth on primary Election Day is where the Democrats should get eliminated. They want that to occur earlier. They want to walk into the voting booth on primary Election Day and feel confident that they are choosing between two or more people who hold at least a base-level adherence to core Republican ideology.

You might say, they want the Republican party to pre-qualify the options as being “non-Democrat” before that candidate’s name ever appears on the ballot as an option. Lucky for Catoosa voters, this process already exists and it is called “candidate qualification.” This is the process by which the Republican Party serves Republican voters by eliminating rotten apples before dishing up the options to the voters. They file the paperwork with the county and the names of whichever candidates they “qualified” as Republicans.

But this process has been circumvented by the Catoosa Board of Elections and the question continues to be litigated in court.

Does a county party have a right to turn down a candidate? The 11th Circuit court said “yes” because the constitution protects the right to freedom of association.

Catoosa GOP has received significant criticism of their efforts to block specific county commission candidates from the primary ballot when those candidates had a history of supporting anti-Republican policy. For two years the argument was that any person has a right to run and have their name appear on the Republican primary ballot, no matter what they believe, no matter what kind of public record they have, as long as they pay the qualifying fee, and sign their name on the loyalty oath to the party. But in an appalling act of government coercion this year, the Catoosa Board of Elections didn’t even allow the Catoosa GOP to disqualify someone who failed to sign the loyalty oath!

The bottom line is that tests, interviews, and auditions only frighten away weak performers … or fakes. Real Republicans who believe in limited government, low taxes, family values, the right to bear arms, etc., are not scared to sit down and talk about what they believe and are not daunted by a pass or fail examination of their record on public policy. Differences of opinion and approach to public policy exist within the party, and are not disqualifiers, so long as those differences remain within the parameters of base-level Republicanism.

The political class counts on low turnout. Don’t give them what they want.

Does the Republican Party exist to serve politicians and get them elected? Or does it exist to serve the people?

The Republican Party exists to enact its principled and conservative platform, which serves the people. The paid political industry/Establishment want the party to be weak and to not serve the public. All actions should be taken toward the goal of getting the platform enacted.

The political industry has one favorite voter: the voter who stays home.

They love the exhausted voter.
They love the confused voter.
They love the voter who says, “I’ll get to it next time.”

Because when regular people stop voting, the paid political industry: consultants, lobbyists, bureaucrats, PACs, and career politicians, they do not stop working or getting paid. They just get a smaller group of people to decide more power for everyone else.

That is why the message is simple:

Go vote. Bring someone with you. Vote like the Democrats and Republican establishment are counting on you to forget.

Georgia’s May 19, 2026 Primary is not a boring election. It includes major statewide races, congressional races, and statewide judicial races. 

And yes: please vote in the judicial races.

Normally, I am rightly skeptical of incumbents. Incumbency is the political class’s favorite shield. But the statewide judicial races are different this election cycle. In these races, the statewide judicial incumbents have done the far better job and need to be supported. 

As an attorney, I can attest that bad appellate judges can cause a lot of harm.

The statewide judicial seats up this cycle include Georgia Supreme Court seats held by Sarah Hawkins Warren and Charlie Bethel, along with Court of Appeals seats held by Trenton Brown and Elizabeth Gobeil.

Do not skip those races. Do not leave them blank. The election for them is happening now and ends on Tuesday. Judicial races matter because courts decide whether written law means what it says, and whether constitutional rights are protected.

Then, for Republicans who want to send a clear message in the partisan races, support the GRA-endorsed candidates. The Georgia Republican Assembly’s 2026 endorsement list includes the following statewide and congressional endorsements and was decided by actual volunteer activists who are more immune to the effects of candidates trying to buy the election with millions of dollars of ads. …

Click here to read more of Alex’s article on his Substack.