This weekend Governor Brian Kemp appeared to heed the great public outcry from the grassroots against S.B. 23, as it was amended in the final days of the recent legislative session.
Although we have sometimes pointed out missteps from Governor Kemp’s administration, we have also publicly expressed our appreciation when he has taken bold and right stands — as when he signed the “Constitutional Carry” legislation and when he early re-opened the state in the midst of the COVID lockdowns. This is yet another example where we want to give credit where credit is due.
Many grassroots activists such as Hank Sullivan have pointed out the problems with S.B. 23, which was amended late into the legislative session to include some of the bad provisions from H.B. 520 relating to data collection on citizens. The amendment was so bad that State Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth), who was the second sponsor of the original version of the bill, voted against his own bill. In fact, in a sign of solidarity, all of the members of the Georgia Freedom Caucus in the previous legislative session opposed the amended S.B. 23.
In a recent newsletter we reported about how multiple GOP Congressional District Conventions passed resolutions reprimanding those “Republican” legislators who voted in favor of the awful “Mental Health” H.B. 520 while commending the few Republicans who voted against it.
Several state legislators present at the 14th District GOP Convention reportedly walked out after learning about the resolution. State Rep. Mike Cameron (R-Walker) turned to the airwaves to belly-ache about the resolution on a local podcast show from Floyd County. He claimed the characterization of H.B. 520 was erroneous and complained about not being treated with more respect as a legislator at the convention. Meanwhile, elected representatives who took strong stands for Republican principles such as State Senator Colton Moore (R-Dade) and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (CD-14) were greeted by the convention as rockstars.
Cameron said he is so offended by the grassroots in northwest Georgia that he intends to boycott the GA GOP State Convention.
In response to the show, the Georgia Freedom Caucus‘ Executive Director Mallory Staples responded to these complaints and mischaracterizations of the legislation, taking to the John Fredricks Show and other programs to defend the resolution and affirm the problems with H.B. 520.
In particular, one thing Mallory pointed out was that the first “Mental Health Parity Bill” H.B. 1013 from the previous legislative session cost the state an estimated $1 billon in taxpayer funding, and now its follow-up H.B. 520 would cost another estimated $80 million to the taxpayer, if passed. (H.B. 520 is presently sitting dormant in the State Senate until next year’s legislative session.)
During the legislative session, we heard many people from the political industry in the Atlanta Establishment say that we didn’t need to pass anymore Election Integrity legislation this year because Georgia had just passed S.B. 202 in 2021. They said that we didn’t need to pass Senator Colton Moore’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (S.B. 67) because Georgia had just passed the “Constitutional Carry” bill in 2022. They said we didn’t need to pass the pro-life Prenatal Equal Protection Act because Georgia had just passed the “Heartbeat Bill” in 2019.
However, these same political industry types had no objection to the legislature trying to pass another omnibus Mental Health bill only one year after H.B. 1013 was adopted!
Some point to reports of recent mass shootings as as an illustration of the need for the state to pad the wallets of Big Pharma, take away people’s liberties, and steal more of the taxpayer’s money through such programs as Medicaid expansions. (Remember how folks voted against Democrat Stacey Abrams because she wanted to expand Medicaid in Georgia?) Yet this is actually an example of the civil government trying to fix a problem that the government has created.
When the state prohibits children from learning the Bible or having prayer in our schools, and indoctrinates them that they evolved by random chance due to no divine purpose or design, and are just chemicals and atoms bouncing off of each other, and there is no transcendent morality; when it tells them from an early age to be worried about global warming and how the earth could become uninhabitable and lead to everyone’s death, and then tries to suppress their resulting anxiety by prescribing these children with drugs until they are dependent; when it tries to pit “white people” against people with other colors of skin; when the state engages in these kinds of practices, it is no wonder that our youth are experiencing mental health issues. It is a problem the state created, and it is a problem the state will only make worse.
The solution is less statism, not more. The solution involves looking to our Creator God and not the false-god of the state.
The Fulton Republican Assembly chapter condemns the racist conduct of Fulton County Commissioners Khadijah Abdur-Rahman and Marvin Arrington, Jr., in their interaction with fellow commissioner Bridget Thorne. “I’m offended at your white privilege!” Khadijah shouted at Bridget in the meeting.
Fulton Commissioner Bridget Thorne
The comments were made at the March 15th Fulton County Commission meeting when discussing action item 23-0208. We also condemn the rest of the Board of Commissioners for not standing up for Commissioner Thorne when those racist sentiments were uttered, especially Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts, who failed to restore proper professional decorum to the meeting.
More importantly, we condemn the toxic ideology from which these racist sentiments spring forth: critical race theory. This utterly destructive ideology has infected the minds of far too many Americans and has led to a worsening of racial tensions, which hurts people of ALL races and social classes. It is a tragic shame that people like Commissioners Abdur-Rahman and Arrington are anywhere near the levers of power at any level of government since their concern is clearly not for the welfare of their constituents. They apparently prefer to grandstand with racially charged comments about a fellow commissioner rather than work towards finding common-ground solutions for the serious problems that their constituents face. Their constituents deserve better representation.
If a hospital is closing down somewhere in Fulton County, the Board of Commissioners has a duty to investigate why the fundamental economics of the venture made operating a hospital in that part of Fulton County financially infeasible. None of the other commissioners disputed any of the financial numbers that Commissioner Thorne provided in her statement. If the Board is legitimately concerned about the health care needs of its constituents, it needs to examine the heavy handed role that government taxes and regulations play in making hospital operations economically unsound in Fulton County – NOT to attack a fellow commissioner who is trying to solve the problem.
Commissioner Thorne is an equal voice on that Board and deserves to be treated with respect. In the face of the racist attacks against her, she continued to conduct herself in a professional manner and with the best interests of the residents of Fulton County in mind. Commissioner Thorne is a hero. The commissioners who attacked her based on the color of her skin are an utter disgrace to the seats of government they occupy. The other commissioners who piled on or otherwise stood by while that attack took place are cowards.
The Fulton Republican Assembly hereby calls for an immediate apology to be issued to Commissioner Thorne from the rest of the Board.
We commend our endorsed State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) for making good on his promise to vote “no” on the state supplemental budget for the reasons explained in an earlier press release. 👏 You can see the video of his good-natured but firm speech on the State Senate floor and the vote last week on our YouTube channel here.
Click to watch the video.
Last week the Georgia State Senate voted on our state’s record budget and what to do with our historic $6 billion surplus. We have never had this much extra money as a State. We have historic debt as a state and very little of this surplus went to pay back some of the $10 billion in Georgia’s bonds.
“None of this historic surplus was used to permanently reduce the income tax rates on Georgians!” said Senator Moore. “Even a .5% or 1% reduction would be a step in a great direction but nothing of that sort was in this budget.”
Why is the youngest Senator in Georgia the ONLY Senator saying these things?
Tennessee has a 0% income tax rate for people and families and Tennessee has a lower fuel tax. “This is why families in Northwest Georgia find it very strange when people say Georgia is the #1 state to do business in,” Moore added. “We see this drastic difference first hand.”
“These things were difficult to say and they were difficult to hear, but I didn’t get voted to go represent 200,000 people in Northwest Georgia to do what’s easy, I was elected to fight for lower taxes, lower crime, support our law enforcement, reduce regulation and seek more freedom for all.”
A historic moment in post-Roe Georgia has occurred! This week the GA Freedom Caucus member State Rep. Emory Dunahoo (R-Gillsville) finally dropped his much anticipated pro-life bill called the Prenatal Equal Protection Act. You can see the video above from him about this landmark legislation. The GRA continues to be a dedicated partner in the “Georgians Ending Abortion” coalition, and this is the best legislative opportunity to end abortion murder we’ve had in decades! The clock is ticking and we have just two weeks to get this bill through the State House and sent to the Senate before Crossover Day!
Click to watch the video announcing the legislation.
The Prenatal Equal Protection Act is also known as H.B. 496 and has been assigned to the Public Health Committee, which is Chaired by State Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Cobb).
The legislative co-sponsors for the Prenatal Equal Protection Act
You can also contact Chairwoman Sharon Cooper directly at (404) 656-5069 or sharon.cooper@house.ga.gov. Urge her to allow the bill to come up for a hearing in committee at their next meeting! It needs to be passed out of committee with absolutely zero amendments to ensure every baby in the womb will be protected from murder.
This kind of mafia-style tyranny against fellow Republicans promoting Republican principles and policies MUST STOP!
The Golden Rule Jesus taught calls us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” How do you love your pre-born neighbor as yourself? You give them equal justice and the same legal protection you and I enjoy from murder and manslaughter.
First, thank you for the out-pouring of donations made in response to our email blast last week! Your generous giving is strengthening our efforts in the face of antagonism from the Atlanta Establishment and the Democrats of the “Uniparty”!
Second, one of the services we continue to be pleased to provide is a legislative vote scorecard of all our Republican state legislators, and our latest scorecards are now available for you to see here! The data brings several alarming items to our attention:
The majority of Republicans in the legislature scored a C or D. This is particularly troubling since we are very generous with our scoring system; a legislator can earn as low as 80% and still earn an “A” under our scoring system.
Most legislative Republicans scored lower than the most conservative Democrats.
While there are some exceptional outliers, most Republican legislators have gotten worse or stayed the same over time.
Do you know how your State Senator and State Representative actually votes at the Georgia State Capitol? The legislative session is currently happening right now, but Republicans are making little progress toward advancing any of the Republican principles of concern to the grassroots activists back home.
This legislative session, our GRA-endorsed legislators and their partners are tackling some major issues that the Establishment in Atlanta does NOT want to come up for a vote! Last week we met with several of our state legislators (pictured above) such as State Reps. Charlice Byrd (Cherokee), Mitchell Horner (Catoosa), Emory Dunahoo (Jackson), and State Senator Colton Moore (District 53), who are working to champion several of the Republican issues folks back home have been clamoring for!
Issues such as election integrity reform, equal protection for all of the preborn, shielding children from drag queens as well as trans and woke indoctrination, securing gun rights, cutting back cronyism and government waste, and more! But before they can barely get started, they are already meeting with opposition and intimidation tactics from the Establishment cronies in the GOP.
The crux of the controversy: The Republican Party does not exist merely to get people with an “R” next to their name elected. The Republican Party exists to advance the pro-American principles in our Republican Party platform. If we win all the elections, but do not pass Republican policies into law, the Republican Party is not doing its job.
The fact is that we are losing Republican supporters because the GOP is not doing its job. Take, for example, this recent email message we received from one of our readers:
The Establishment in Atlanta and D.C., however, want you to think that Republicans must make people with an “R” next to their name look good regardless of whether they advance Republican principles or undermine them. That’s why they took so much offense at the GRA publicly exposing the wrongs of former Speaker David Ralston and calling him to account, or take offense when we’ve pointed out something bad or questionable that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger or Governor Brian Kemp has done.
GRA leadership meeting with legislators at the state capitol last week
So while the Establishment in Atlanta acts very indignant for the GRA publicly seeking accountability against RINOs, they hypocritically seek to bring their own form of accountability against those of us who do not pretend like all elected Republican officials are wonderful in all that they do (or do not do). They want to “cancel” us. They want to cancel our endorsed legislators. They want to cancel the voice of you, the grassroots activists. They are actively right now trying to destroy, shame, and neuter those champions working to advance the issues you have told us you care about in Georgia.
Issues that are a matter of life and death, issues that determine whether we enjoy the freedom and prosperity we inherited from our forefathers or sink into oppression.
We expect the Democrats, the Marxists, and the “fake news” liberal media to attack us. They have already clearly marked and identified themselves as the enemy. But when people in your own party stab you in the back, that is especially disgraceful.
GRA President Alex Johnson, State Rep. Charlice Byrd, and State Rep. Mitchell Horner at the capitol
Over the last two weeks our legislators have been told to keep quiet about election integrity reform. No one in leadership is providing any plan on how to address the concerns. Meanwhile, new Speaker Jon Burns (Screven) has signaled he is not “looking” to take up another pro-life bill this year. Pseudo-prolife groups controlled by the Establishment are pressuring legislators like Charlice Byrd and Emory Dunahoo to back down from introducing Equal Protectionlegislation and to disassociate with GRTL and the GRA.
Likewise, the first day of the legislative session, Representatives in the State House were given less than an hour to review proposed rules changes before being called upon to vote on them. One of the rules changes gives the state Speaker new authority to bypass the House Rules Committee and bring legislation to the Floor unilaterally, and another rule allows the Speaker to shorten the window of time in which legislators could vote on a bill. These are powers some could reasonably question whether they might be abused. State Rep. Mitchell Horner made an objection on the adoption of these rules and was quickly berated on the House floor by State Rep. Sharon Cooper (Cobb).
GRA at GRTL’s March for Life
Over this last weekend, some officers of our Executive Committee have received death threats from anonymous callers identifying themselves with Antifa. This began at the same time riots of violence broke out in downtown Atlanta. Our words have been twisted and sensationalized to provoke a backlash. The radical left and the Republican Establishment are out to quash the GRA because we are fighting for you. We are fighting for the defenseless.
We have received numerous requests from readers asking how they can get in contact with our GA GOP Chairman David Shafer, our GA National Committeeman Jason Thompson, and our GA National Committeewoman Ginger Howard about the vote for RNC Chair. These three people represent us Republicans from Georgia on the Republican National Committee and they will soon be voting on who should be the RNC Chair for the country.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel
Many believe that the current RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (niece to Mitt Romney) is largely to blame for the overall poor Republican performance across the country in the last general election. Today our National Committeeman Jason Thompson announced he would be voting for Harmeet Dhillon (a Republican Assembly member) to replace her. The other two representatives of the GA GOP have signaled that they are still undecided.
If you would like to contact these three representatives about the pending vote to elect RNC Chair, click the email link for each of their names below:
If you portray yourself as a Globalist Republican with few conservative principles and you tell the folks at home on a Zoom meeting that you gave “them the Business,” the World Economic Forum (WEF) will “pat you on the head.”
Governor Kemp at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Governor Brian Kemp’s question at the forum: “In the last elections, you were very clearly elected, and the candidates that did not win were ‘election deniers,’ have you got any perceptions here regarding what’s the difference?” Kemp’s responses were about business climate, secure the border, and the Inflation Reduction Act, but nothing about election integrity. The WEF got what they were looking for when Kemp, in essence, said “election deniers can’t win in Davos’ New World Order.”
In contrast, when President Donald Trump attended Davos before the election of 2020, his message to the World Economic Forum was: “A Nation’s highest duty is to its citizens. A pro-worker, pro-family agenda demonstrates how a nation can thrive.” “But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom.” “These alarmists always demand the same thing – ABSOLUTE POWER. To dominate, transform, and control every aspect of our lives.”
Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF, stated “We have to prepare for a more angry world……” and “What we are very proud of is that we have penetrated the cabinets. . .”
Check out the other invitees to 2023 World Economic Forum. We don’t see any America First leaders on this roster. There are a few Globalist Republicans here, but no Populist Republicans nor Grassroots Republicans, nor Nationalist Republicans, nor Conservative Republicans, just Elite Republicans who want to do business with CCP and WEF and Multinational Corporations who care not for America’s citizens.
Brian Kemp, Daniel Issa, Joe Manchin, Samantha Power, John Kerry, Gretchen Whitmer, and Christopher Wray, Director of FBI, . . . hmmmm? The last time the World Economic Forum invited a governor from Georgia was in 1970’s – Governor Jimmy Carter. And do you know how many of his cabinet positions were WEF members. There were ten of them, especially Zbigniew Brzezinski, father of Mika.
The Georgians Ending Abortion coalition has grown: Now Apologia,End Abortion Now, and other groups are adding their strength to the effort to advance legislation in Georgia that would provide Equal Protection for all of the preborn.
Jeff Durbin with Apologia
The above video tells the tragic story about how legislation last year in Louisiana that would have saved the lives all of the preborn was thwarted—not by pro-aborts—but by the pseudo-prolife community in bed with the political Establishment. Some of those who contributed to thwarting that life-saving legislation were people and organizations from right here in Georgia. Now the battle is coming to Georgia. See the video to get a preview of what we can expect.
The GRA is committed to stand with our partners in the coming legislative session to protect the lives of all preborn babies.
We ask for your prayers and support in the effort. We would encourage your families, churches, and communities to help support the coming legislation.
As you prayerfully consider your end-of-the-year tax-deductible giving, we would recommend that you donate to one of our non-profit partner organizations in this effort. Although the GRA is not a 501(c)3, you can give to Georgia Right to Life, Apologia, and End Abortion Now— allorganizations working unapologetically to provide 100% Equal Protection to all the preborn with zeroeugenics! We know that they will put your donation dollars to good use.
