The Chairman Can Claim Credit, But The Georgia GOP Was Essentially A Bystander In The November 8 Election.
After the General Election, the Georgia Republican Party issued this statement from Chairman David Shafer:
Everyone knows that Governor Kemp and other Statewide Candidates felt it necessary to set up their own grassroots operations and not rely on the State GOP. After all, David Shafer is assumed by many to have recruited candidates against incumbent Statewide Republicans (AG and Insurance Commissioner) and is widely assumed to have been involved in recruitment of David Perdue to challenge Kemp. Additionally, Second Vice Chair Brant Frost has told people he recruited as many as 10 candidates to run primary challenges against incumbent Republican Legislators.
When leading party officials are assumed to be recruiting candidates against sitting Republicans, people shouldn’t be surprised those sitting Republicans no longer trust the Georgia GOP. Indeed, that lack of trust is being talked about in national media articles.
“The state party has not been effective or seen as an honest broker, both among political leaders and incumbents and also the corporate community,” one Kemp adviser told The Dispatch. “Essentially you have a state party that is not respected by just about any of the current officeholders in the state, and also can’t raise money, because—for a variety of reasons—corporate entities and folks that typically gave to the state party in the past don’t feel comfortable doing that anymore. And they are increasingly coming to groups like [Georgians First] … as entities that are doing the infrastructure work that state parties used to do.”
The Dispatch, “What Do The Grassroots Do Now?”
As the article went on to mention, when national Republicans wanted to enhance Herschel Walker’s runoff efforts, they didn’t turn to David Shafer, they turned to Brian Kemp and the grassroots organization he has built. Oof.
The Georgia GOP will hold state, district, and county leadership elections beginning next February (Scot mentioned a relevant rumor floating around). It’s time for the Georgia GOP to do some soul searching. Do they want to continue to be an organization that stands opposed to Georgia’s elected Republicans, and thus, against the voters who elected and reelected those Republicans? Or do they want to become a relevant entity again in Georgia Republican politics by helping good Republicans in the mold of Brian Kemp win elections? If it’s the latter, then new leadership is needed in 2023, and those who helped make the Party an election bystander need to be booted out.
