Donald Trump maintains hold over Georgia Republicans

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at the East Palestine Fire Department as he visits the area in the aftermath of the Norfolk Southern train derailment Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Trump’s lawyers in Georgia are criticizing the Fulton County investigation into potential illegal election meddling after the foreperson of the special grand jury seated to help the probe went public this week. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)

A slate of Georgia Republicans led by Gov. Brian Kemp handily won reelection last year over far-right primary opponents endorsed by Donald Trump and backed by the state party chairperson, showing the limits of the former president and his 2020 election lies in the critical swing state.

Despite those stinging primary losses, the state GOP is showing little interest in moving on from Trump.

Last weekend, Republicans in Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Savannah, elected as its chair Kandiss Taylor, a Kemp gubernatorial challenger who ran on a “Jesus Guns Babies” platform and denies the legitimacy of her primary defeat. In metro Atlanta’s 6th Congressional District, Republican activists considered a resolution rejecting the results of the 2020 election and declaring Democrat Joe Biden the “acting” president.

“In many ways, the Georgia Republican Party is a train that has left Crazytown, and the governor is trying to present a scenario and lead and demonstrate that that’s not the path to success,” said John Watson, a former state Republican Party chair aligned with Kemp.

Kemp and a handful of other elected Republicans said this week that they won’t attend the state’s GOP convention in June, when the new leader of the state party will be chosen, citing unhappiness with current party leaders.

In addition to concerns about the party’s direction, Georgia Republican incumbents are still mad at outgoing party Chair David Shafer, who promoted a Trump-aligned ticket of primary challengers against them in last year’s primaries. Those state officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, not only won their primaries but also went on to beat their Democratic rivals by convincing margins.

“I am going to stand up with those that believe in electing and supporting Republicans, but I don’t think it’s right when you have a party that went after an entire statewide ticket and undermined our ability to get elected,” Carr said Wednesday after a bill-signing in Buford.

Carr and others voice hope that one of the three candidates running to replace Shafer as party chair will patch things up. Chairman since 2019, Shafer is stepping down while a target of investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into attempts to overturn President Joe Biden’s Democratic victory in Georgia in 2020.

Kemp has been trying to promote a Trump-divergent vision for Republicans since shortly after the 2020 election, when he defied the then-president’s demands to help overturn Trump’s narrow loss in the state. His impressive win over Democrat Stacey Abrams last year stoked presidential speculation, but Kemp has said he’s not going to seek the White House in 2024. He has, however, been angling for national influence through the Republican Governors Association and could be setting up a 2026 Senate run against Jon Ossoff.

But it’s not Kemp who elects the leader of the state party — it’s activists. And that setup has caused conflict before.

Kemp got booed at the 2021 state party convention, and some members tried to censure Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, Kemp’s predecessor. Deal skipped the two conventions in his second term.

“The people show up at party events are not representative of Georgia’s Republican primary electorate,” said Brian Robinson, a political consultant who was Deal’s chief spokesperson. “They are, by and large, much further to the right, much more ideologically driven.”

The discord is also raising questions about whether control of the party apparatus matters anymore. In Georgia, voters don’t register by party and can participate in whatever primary they like. Unlike in some states, Georgia party leaders can’t kick candidates off the primary ballot for disloyalty. And a recent Georgia law allows Kemp and some other state officials to raise unlimited sums of money and coordinate with campaigns, which used to be key party functions.