Rhonda Thomas with Truth in Education has sounded the alarm about H.B. 268. If you remember HB 520 (one of the many egregious “mental health” bills the GA legislature entertained recently, this bill is similar.
H.B. 268 was presented under the pretense of enhancing school safety due to school shootings. However, this bill fails to mention the use of metal detectors even once.
Instead, it is a lengthy 66-page document that imposes undue control over families and our children, turning our schools into government surveillance hubs.
Major Concerns with H.B.268:
Criminalizes Speech – Students could face felony charges for what they say online, on the school bus, in the classroom, etc.
Parental Punishment – Parents can be punished for their child’s words and actions.
Comprehensive Surveillance – Establishes a stealth student surveillance system (S3) that tracks children into adulthood.
Labeling Without Consent – Identifies students as potential “threats” without parental approval and shares data with law enforcement.
Predictive Policing – Utilizes monitoring tactics that can disproportionately impact students unfairly.
Arming teachers would be more effective at addressing the concern than implementing thought police and China-style monitoring!
The bill is scheduled to go into the full House Education Committee next week. It passed out of a subcommittee with unanimous support. Call the members of the committee and urge them to vote “no” to H.B. 268!
Across the state, GOP organizations have been passing resolutions in support of State Senator Colton Moore‘s brave constitutional stand against State Speaker Jon Burns when he tried to block him from attending a Join Session of the legislature, and then had him wrongfully arrested. The Speaker’s office has still issued no apology nor had the unlawful charges dropped.
One county GOP organization that has been unable to pass a resolution on this subject is the Cobb County GOP where their Parliamentarian Donna Rowe crafted so much “red tape” in the rules of the organization as to make it virtually impossible for the Cobb GOP to pass any resolutions on timely subjects. The Cobb GOP Resolutions Committee Chairman Leroy Emkin is also a GRA member, as are several other members of his committee, and they adopted a version of the resolution which has been unable to advance for consideration before the Cobb GOP due to the onerous restrictions.
As a result, Cobb Resolutions Chairman Emkin submitted the drafted resolution from Cobb to the GRA Board, asking them to pass the resolution on behalf of our organization since the Cobb GOP has not been given the opportunity. The GRA Board today passed the resolution without objection. You can read the resolution here:
Atlanta, GA — In a surprise move, Speaker Jon Burns (District 159) did not this year assign State Rep. Emory Dunahoo‘s (District 31) new version of the Equal Protection Pro-Life Bill H.B. 441 to Sharon Cooper‘s (District 45) Public Health Committee. Last term, the bill had been assigned to Cooper’s committee, where it died on the vine as Cooper did not ever allow the bill to come up for discussion or a vote in a hearing. Cooper has been long known as perhaps the least pro-life Republican state legislator at the capitol. But today the Speaker instead assigned the bill to the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee chaired by State Rep. Tyler Paul Smith (District 18).
“This is such a big step!” said GRA Junior NFRA Director Abigail Darnell, who also serves as the elected 1st Vice President of Georgia Right to Life (GRTL). “Finally, we will be discussing elective abortion in the category of criminal justice — not healthcare — as the debate has been wrongly framed in the past.”
Rep. Tyler Paul Smith
Rep. Tyler Paul Smith is expected to ensure the bill does receive a hearing this time since he was one of the co-sponsors on the bill in the previous term. If the bill is approved by the committee, it can then be brought up and voted on by the full State House. Republicans outnumber Democrats on that committee 12 to 5.
“Passing this legislation would simply bring state law into conformity with the Georgia Republican Party platform on this subject,” said GRA President Nathaniel Darnell. “We should expect every Republican legislator on the committee to vote in its favor.”
GRA-endorsed State Rep. Charlice Byrd (Cherokee) is one of the members of the committee, and a co-sponsor of the bill.
But in order for any House Bill to have a hope of passing and becoming state law, it must be voted on and pass the State House by “Crossover Day,” which is expected to be March 6th. Supporters have started calling State Representatives on the committee to urge them to vote in support of the bill as drafted.
“There will probably be some who wrongfully want to water down the text of the bill or add all kinds of imaginable exceptions for non-normative situations,” said Darnell. “But it is the job of the jury in a trial to determine if a homicide in a particular case is justifiable or excusable, that is not the job of the state code. This bill would simply say that elective abortion should betreated like any other type of homicide. As with any other homicide, the jury must evaluate the facts of a specific case. It is wrong to carve out exceptions for a particular type of homicide, such as the killing of people of a particular race or age. Equal justice is when the law applies to everyone equally.”
Contact Legislators in Support of HB-441 You can do your part to end legalized abortion in Georgia by calling or emailing the committee members and urging them to vote HB 441 out of committee to the House for a vote, and then on to the Senate chamber for a vote!
Contact the office of Representative Tyler Paul Smith and the following members of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee and urge them to give HB 441 a hearing!
Atlanta, GA — Yesterday State Rep. Emory Dunahoo (District 31) reintroduced his Prenatal Equal Protection pro-life bill for the 2025-2026 term, this time as H.B. 441. We commend him for continuing to take the lead on pushing for equal protection for all — as the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires! — including the pre-born from the moment of conception, which is fertilization.
Fertilization is the moment a baby becomes a growing, living human with a unique human DNA from the child’s parents.
The number of legislators who co-sponsored the legislation increased considerably from the previous term. This year 22 Republican legislators have co-sponsored the Prenatal Equal Protection Act! GRA-endorsed Reps. Charlice Byrd and Noelle Kahaian were among the House sponsors, along with Mitchell Horner (District 3), Joseph Gullett (District 19), David Clark (District 100), and 17 others. The legislative web site only shows the first six signatories, but you can see the full list below.
Above is a more easy-to-read list of the signatories on H.B. 441, the Prenatal Equal Protection Act.The hand-written signatories of the bill before it was submitted to the Clerk of the House and assigned a bill number.
Of course, the GRA does not evaluate legislators on only one issue, but this is a remarkable improvement of support for Georgia’s premiere pro-life legislation. Most notably, a large percentage of the legislative co-sponsors (at least seven of them) on the bill reside in the 14th Congressional District. The 14th District GA GOP has passed several strong pro-life resolutions over the last few years at their district conventions, so maybe resolutions make a bigger difference than some would like us to think.
H.B. 441 simply seeks to bring Georgia law into conformity with the Georgia Republican Party Platform on this issue. Read what the platform says here.
Now we will see if Speaker Jon Burns (District 159) assigns the bill to Rep. Sharon Cooper’s (District 45) Public and Community Health Committee again to die without a vote as they did in the last term.
Year after year, the GAGOP passes resolutions that don’t seem to have an impact. That’s because certain people don’t want the party to do anything except follow after politicians, instead of holding them accountable to you. That’s why people are always in a rush to adjourn conventions instead of letting more business take place. You can fix that.
This year, don’t let them stop the grassroots. Vote against attempts to adjourn or shut down debate.
As county conventions approach, it’s vitally important that you make sure you both submit resolutions to various conventions, and get other likeminded people involved. Why? Because resolutions from the party can be actions that influence what happens (such as the recent decision by the State GOP to prohibit Geoff Duncan from qualifying as a Republican in the future), or create state the party’s opinion on important issues.
I will likely be submitting versions of the following resolutions to be considered at the state convention. These are personal projects. You can, if you agree with them, edit them and make sure to have similar versions adopted at your county and district conventions (there are .doc versions for you to edit):
It is great news that GAGOP has already taken their constitutionally authorized step to prohibit fake Republican/RINO former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, from running as a Republican in Georgia.
As I mentioned in the last message, we have a GAGOP Convention Cycle this year. This is where voters like you attend the GAGOP Precinct Meetings, County Conventions, District Conventions, and the State Convention to (1) pass motions (resolutions) regarding party actions; (2) elect delegates to other conventions; (3) elect party officers; (4) pass party rules.
Your participation is vital. People who make their careers off politics or the “paid political industry” (such as lobbyists, political consultants, etc.) sometimes show up and try to persuade people to elect “nice” people who refuse to hold politicians accountable to our state party platform/principles.
It is vitally important you be involved, as you do not want Establishment/Paid Political Industry sycophants running the Georgia GOP. If you look at past messages, going back years, you can see the history of the GAGOP and the results of having people who refuse to stand for principle, versus the improvements we’ve had since 2019, though there is much to be done.
You need two things before the state convention: (1) get good information on who is running for various offices; (2) training/knowledge on how to use Roberts Rules of Order so you can have your voice heard and participate effectively in the convention process.
For the information, we encourage you to not lose credibility by making or supporting candidates for party office until later in the cycle. The Georgia Republican Assembly (“GRA”), consisting of principled grassroots Republicans like you (and you are welcome to apply to join at www.GeorgiaRA.com), holds a convention for our members (who are actual principled grassroots Republicans) to choose who to endorse with at least a 2/3 vote of those members.
This is after the GRA has a team that puts out a report on the candidates, including information from their history, answers to questionnaires, and other information. You can see previous reports on the GRA website (www.GeorgiaRA.com).
We encourage you to not lose your freedom by getting into a divided candidate fight without all of the information. The GRA Endorsing Convention will be held this year on May 10, 2025 (with local endorsing conventions for local offices prior to that), and we encourage you to wait in supporting candidates for State GOP office until after all candidates have declared and the GRA endorsing convention has concluded.
The way the GOP Establishment takes back control of the GOP is by dividing grassroots anti-Establishment Republicans against each other, including by falsely advertising who they are. It is up to us to stop them.
Now more than ever, we need dedicated individuals like you to step up and make a difference. The GRA (www.GeorgiaRA.com) is a grassroots volunteer organization committed to empowering members and ensuring that our party stays true to its principles. We stand for transparency, accountability, and the power of “we the people.” I encourage you to join the GRA and be a part of this vital movement.
Thank you for your unwavering commitment to Republican values. Together, we can build a stronger, more principled party that truly represents the voice of the people. Let’s continue to stand for truth, integrity, and the principles that make our party great.
Over the last week, the Democrat Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has been making a big to-do, alleging that state laws that protect some children from abortion murder are to blame for the death of Amber Thurman. However, fact-checking reveals the following:
The 2022 Amber Thurman story is a case of medical malpractice.
The treatment Amber needed, a dilation & curettage (D&C), to remove the body of her murdered twin babies, was and remains completely legal under Georgia’s current “Heartbeat” law.
Amber died two years ago in 2022. The only reason we are just now hearing about her story (two years later) is because it is an election year and the pro-abortion Left is exploiting her death for political purposes.
Amber died of a known risk listed on the abortion drug’s black box warning — a risk the pro-life community frequently warns people about.
Leftists falsely claim “abortion is safer than Tylenol” but 1 in 25 women go to the emergency room with complications after taking the abortion pill!
Amber Thurman
Therefore, the real blame for Amber Thurman’s death should be put upon those who are touting these abortion murder pills as safe for the health of the mother.
The Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) expresses its profound outrage following the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump at the Mar-a-Lago golf course. This alarming incident marks the second time in just two months that a threat has been made against the life of our nation’s leader, and it underscores the urgent need for accountability and justice.
The GRA is grateful that President Trump emerged from this harrowing experience unscathed. His safety is a relief to all who value the principles of democracy and the rule of law. We commend the quick actions of the Secret Service and local law enforcement, which ensured the former president’s protection during this dangerous situation.
We call upon law enforcement agencies to swiftly identify and prosecute the assailant, as well as any co-conspirators involved in this heinous act. It is imperative that those who threaten the lives of public figures are brought to justice to prevent further violence and intimidation.
Furthermore, the GRA urges the media to temper their rhetoric regarding President Trump. The false narrative that he poses a threat to democracy, fueled by baseless allegations, creates a dangerous environment that emboldens unhinged individuals to commit acts of violence. It is crucial for the media to recognize their role in shaping public discourse and to refrain from inciting further division and hostility.
In these challenging times, we must unite in our commitment to protect our leaders and uphold the democratic values that define our great nation. The GRA stands firmly with President Trump and calls for an end to the political violence that threatens the fabric of our society.
To see the press release the GRA put out on this subject, click here.
Rome, GA — Federal Judge Billy Ray yesterday issued his opinion in an attempt to dismiss the Catoosa GOP case brought in federal court. At issue is the Catoosa GOP’s right of freedom of association and free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This dismissal provides grounds for the Catoosa GOP to appeal, and take the case to the next level in the federal court system for review, and that is exactly what they are going to do!
Joanna Hildreth
“In spite of this hurdle,” said Catoosa GOP Chairwoman Joanna Hildreth, “we are going to continue to push this case forward and expect that we will prevail in the end!”
“We applaud the Catoosa GOP for continuing the fight for accountability within the GOP by appealing this dismissal,” said GRA President Nathaniel Darnell. “We feel confident that as this cases moves its way up in the appeals process, closer to the U.S. Supreme Court, the likelihood of the court ruling in their favor rises substantially due to the clear judicial precedent.”
As you may recall, back in March the Catoosa GOP conducted candidate qualifying and they implemented a new procedure that required all candidates wishing to run as a Republican to interview with the party officials to determine if the candidate shared Republican ideology. Four candidates who were incumbent commissioners with a record of raising taxes, restricting the rights of citizens to own chickens, or had endorsed a Democrat, were refused because the local party believed they did not meet the minimum qualification to be called a “Republican.”
Rather than running as Independents or Democrats, the four candidates chose to sue the local party, and a local judge ordered the board of elections to place the candidates on the Republicans Party primary ballot against the will of the party.
Recent SCOTUS precedent on this subject have been unequivocal in protecting the rights of persons and entities in both their associations and their speech. If civil governments can get away with forcing a candidate to be able to run as a Republican, then that opens the flood-gates for violations of other associations. According to the same logic the government could force a Baptist Church to accept a Buddhist or Atheist as an ordained minister in their church. The government could require Coca-cola to have an executive from a corporate competitor like Pepsi on their Board! There is no limit to how association rights could be violated.
In the opinion, this lower court federal Judge here has taken the bait from the attorneys representing the R.I.N.O. candidates and attempted to dismiss the case supposedly on a lack of standing. The reasoning is that since the Catoosa GOP was not supposedly forced to qualify the candidates to run in the Republican Primary, but instead the government forced the BOE to go around the Catoosa GOP and allow them on the Republican primary ballot, that therefore the Catoosa GOP suffered no injury in being forced to associate as Republicans with the candidates.
Most people today consider the old “arranged” betrothal approach to marriage, where guardians selected their children’s marriage partner for them without their consent, as absurd. But that’s what you have here. The reasoning is like saying: “Your right to choose your marriage partner wasn’t violated because you didn’t make the choice on who you would marry. Your guardians made that decision for you.” Huh?
The opinion at least acknowledges that in the Dukes case precedent the state party was allowed to block a candidate from running as a Republican in a federal presidential election, but alleges that this is different here because this case involves counties. Again, huh? So a state party can block a candidate from running for nation–wide office, but a county party cannot block a candidate from running for county office? Based on what line of reasoning? How is that equitable? The judge fails to explain.
Obviously, a county party cannot block a candidate from running for state or federal office. But that is not what we have here. In this case we have a county party operating totally within its jurisdiction to block only county candidates from running as Republicans in the county only.
The opinion furthermore cites a state law in an attempt to use it to super-cede constitutional law. We all know that constitutional law trumps statutory law. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-153 is cited, saying that “all candidates for party nomination in a state or county primary shall qualify as such candidates in accordance with the procedural rules of the their party” provided that the candidates meet the other statutory requirements (emphasis added). The argument the R.I.N.O. candidates’ attorneys have been making from the beginning is that candidates are only required to follow procedural requirements, and may not be subject to substantive requirements (i.e., whether they vote in accordance with Republican policy positions).
This line of argument assumes that substantive requirements and procedural requirements are necessarily mutually exclusive. They are not always. In the case of Catoosa GOP, the elected GOP committee voted to make a substantive review of a candidates’ past performance and messaging as part of the procedural requirements for running in the Republican primary. Procedurally in Catoosa, the county GOP has to vote to approve a candidate before they are allowed to qualify. It is similar to a church or denomination being able to reject an applicant for minister if they find evidence that suggests the applicant does not share their doctrines.
The Republican voters in Catoosa County elected the Catoosa GOP leadership with the power to set such procedures and to review such candidates so that they could inform the low-information Republican electorate in the community (who don’t have time to scrutinize the candidates) whether they will truly represent the minimum standards necessary for the Republican brand. It is a violation of the voter’s rights to steal this protective ability from their elected representatives.
Ballot Questions
The rest of the opinion deals with the ballot questions the Catoosa GOP submitted for the Catoosa Republican Primary ballot. The judge argues that the ballot questions may be blocked in this case because it’s the government who is providing the ballots that the Catoosa GOP is using. The idea is that the ballot questions might appear to be an endorsement of the Catoosa GOP’s speech by the government.
But ballot questions often present messages that are controversial about a plethora of subjects. Allowing the government to start screening and filtering out ballot questions on particular topics means that a government could effectively have the power to block any questions that dealt with something about which the government disagreed.
Woodstock, GA — State Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) last night spoke to a precinct dinner hosted by North Metro RA chapter President Richard Jordan in Cherokee County. Beach’s Senate district includes much of east Cherokee County and a portion of north Fulton County, and Beach faces Democrat opposition in the general election. He encouraged the attendees at the dinner to rally behind President Donald Trump in the race, and praised his integrity while highlighting how damaging the polices of the Biden / Harris administration have been over the last four years.
Sen. Brandon Beach
During the Q&A portion of his presentation, Beach answered a number of questions on a variety of issues. In particular, Beach expressed his support of GA GOP Chairman Josh McKoon‘s recent proposal to have the GA GOP Executive Committee vote to block Geoff Duncan from ever being able to qualify to run for office again as a Republican. “I don’t understand how you can consider yourself a conservative in any way if you support the radical agenda of Kamala Harris!” he said.
The GA GOP Executive Committee in early August decided to draft a proposal on that subject that will be voted on in a future meeting. The vote would only require a simple majority of the 28-member Executive Committee, or 15 votes. The GRA has been reminding the GA GOP of their power protected under the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and parallel provisions in the state constitution of a “right of association,” and we applaud this proposed action regarding Duncan. The GOP E.C. already possesses all the accountability power necessary to block fake Republicans like Duncan or Raffensperger and we are grateful for this step in the right direction.
On the other hand, Sen. Beach said that both he and Lt. Governor Burt Jones (R-Jackson) hoped the Senate Republican Caucus would welcome back Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) very soon. Sen. Moore was suspended from the Senate Republican Caucus last September for calling out fellow Republicans in the Senate for not supporting his proposal to sanction Fulton Democrat D.A. Fani Willis in her harassing lawsuit against former President Trump. Beach indicated that most of the tension on restoring that relationship is coming from the State Senate President Pro Tem Sen. John F. Kennedy (R-Macon).
Marcia Cox reports on progress in Cherokee County.
Beach also expressed his support of on-going Election Integrity reform. He reminded the audience that it was he and Burt Jones who ran afoul of then-Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan by speaking out on election integrity after the 2020 election, and they were punished by Duncan for doing so.
GRA-member Marcia Cox from Cherokee also gave a report at the meeting on outreach efforts in the county, and reported that the Cherokee GOP membership has grown to a record-breaking level as people are rallying together to help in the general election.
Participants at the meeting last night also got to meet Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s sweet mother who was in attendance.
Richard Jordan leads the meeting.We enjoyed getting to meeting MTG’s sweet mother.
The recent opinion issued by the Attorney General’s office is a glaring contradiction to his public statements made just weeks ago. On August 1, 2024, the Attorney General Chris Carr emphatically declared on social media that he would “investigate specific claims of voter fraud” and that his office was ready to “prosecute any voter fraud found in the State of Georgia.” Yet now, he claims that his office is not required to investigate the very fraud referred to him by the State Election Board (SEB), dismissing their request as beyond his statutory obligations.
This about-face is not only hypocritical but also a clear evasion of the responsibilities vested in the Attorney General under Georgia law. O.C.G.A. § 45-15-4 explicitly authorizes the Attorney General to employ private counsel for any branch of state government, including for investigations into matters as serious as election fraud. Additionally, O.C.G.A. § 21-2-31(5) mandates the SEB to investigate election irregularities and report violations to the Attorney General for further investigation and prosecution. The Attorney General’s refusal to act on this referral, especially after publicly vowing to tackle voter fraud, is a betrayal of the trust placed in his office by the people of Georgia.
The Attorney General’s current stance is a deliberate misreading of his role. By refusing to investigate, he is abdicating his duty to uphold the integrity of our elections. The people of Georgia deserve an Attorney General who backs up his words with action, not one who hides behind legal technicalities when it’s time to deliver on promises made to protect our republic.
Some Good News
In other news, in spite of the State Board of Elections Meeting this Monday being made virtual, it turned out to continue to build momentum for election-integrity advocates as the Board voted to pass some additional good rule proposals by their usual 3-to-2 majority.
One key proposal that passed would require county Boards of Elections to reconcile the paper ballot receipt count with the computer tabulators. One would think that this would have already been in place, but it was not.
Even though they were not allowed inside the meeting room at the state capitol, several election integrity advocates still showed up a the capitol to promote the cause.
