GAGOP Executive Committee -Not You Amy Kremer – Issues Statement on SEB;
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon released a statement via X.com advocating for the State Elections Board (SEB) to have its own investigators and independent counsel. The statement, signed by almost all members of the Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party, comes in the wake of Attorney General Chris Carr’s Official Opinion stating the SEB has the sole authority to investigate violations of state election law, or request the Secretary of State conduct an investigation, but has no power under Georgia law to order the Attorney General to conduct an investigation.
If you didn’t notice one name seemed to be missing from the list of Executive Officers, National Committeewoman Amy Kremer was quick to point out she wasn’t included.
While no explanation has yet been given for Kremer’s lack of inclusion, it could very well be based on the statement that she asked McKoon to include in the statement…”We call on Governor Kemp to fully release all appropriate funding to the SEB immediately.”
Amy Kremer’s claim that Governor Kemp is somehow inappropriately withholding funding from the SEB may be in furtherance of a scheme her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is promoting to raise funds to “fully fund” the SEB.
The issue seems to be a line item veto by Governor Kemp to provide $25,000 to the SEB for a website. Kylie Kremer posts a snippet of an email from Alexandra Hardin, the Paralegal for the SEB noting that the $25,000 reduction in the budget was for the website and the website only, and that there had not been any money appropriated for a SEB general counsel or staff attorney.
With a final goal of $513,018, Kremer has raised over $11,000 for the campaign as of this post. According to Kremer, “All donations will be directly transferred to an SEB-owned account.”
There is a small problem with that claim…the SEB has no way of accepting the funds.
In an email to Anna Bower, Senior Editor of Lawfare.org, SEB Chairman John Fervier has disavowed any association with Kremer’s campaign and explicitly debunked Kremer’s claims that Governor Kemp is withholding any funds from the SEB.
“Any claims being made that the State Elections Board has been defunded or stripped of its funding by Governor Kemp or the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget are simply not true.”
Fervier goes on to note that the SEB received the same funding this year that it did last year with the exception of state approved payroll increases.
Then why is Kylie Kremer still raising funds?
The Kremers have a long history of sketchy financial dealings.
Amy Kremer had been well known as a local GOP activist before the election of President Barack Obama and the rise of the Tea Party movement. Along with Jenny Beth Martin and others, Amy Kremer helped to start the Tea Party Patriots (TPP) which quickly grew into a national organization. There was soon a falling out among the organizers and Kremer left TPP for rival group Tea Party Express (TPE) in 2009. Soon after, the court briefs started flying and Amy Kremer was sued by TPP for misuse of TPP’s intellectual property, with Kremer claiming the TPP’s name, website, and massive email lists as her personal property.
TPP was successful in obtaining a restraining order against Kremer. Kremer would eventually be found in contempt of court for violating the order.
In another law suit, the Atlanta Tea Party, a separate organization founded by Debbie Dooley, Amy Kremer, and Kremer’s boyfriend, James Lyle, sued Kremer and Lyle for, among other charges, unjust enrichment obtained by allegedly collecting Tea Party funds through the use of their personal PayPal account and accused the couple of acting in “bad faith”. The Atlanta Tea Party eventually dismissed the case in 2014.
Amy Kremer’s financial issues did not end there.
In 2016, Amy Kremer and Ann Stone, ex-wife of Roger Stone, founded Women Vote Trump PAC. As Rantt reported, “Founded with a goal of raising $30 million, by 2017, the Women Vote Trump PAC was nearly $20,000 in debt and had only raised $26,813.”
The PAC would also run into issues with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) for misuse of a candidate’s name. Kremer would continue the PAC under a new name, Women Vote Smart, but would soon face more issues with the FEC for failing to file required reports resulting in mounting fines. As of June 2023, Kremer’s PAC would be facing nine separate fines amounting to over $102,000 owed to the FEC.
According to Forbes, there was also an issue of a disappearing $40,000 debt owed to the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. that suddenly vanished from PAC’s report, “In a February 2019 filing, just before Kremer became the PAC’s treasurer, Women Vote Smart reported owing Trump’s D.C. hotel $40,000. The debt was not listed in the PAC’s next report—nor was an explanation for how it was wiped out.”
In 2017, Kremer took a pause to mount an unsuccessful bid for Congress, running in the special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District which was vacated when Tom Price was appointed U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services by Donald Trump. Kremer received 351 votes (or 0.18%). The runoff would eventually see Republican Karen Handel defeat Democrat Jon Ossoff in what would become the most expensive Congressional House race in U.S. history. Kremer raised almost $20,000 for the race, $15,000 of which she put in herself.
If her previous experience with PACs and campaigns wasn’t enough, Kremer would start another, Women for America First in 2019. With her daughter, Kylie, as Executive Director, it would be Women for America First that would apply for a permit to hold a “Stop the Steal” rally on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
After speaking at the rally, the Kremer’s left to go back to the Willard Hotel. As the National Guard troops arrived at the Capitol to restore order, according to reports, the Kremers were ordering champagne and charcuterie.
Despite all of these lingering issues, Amy Kremer decided to challenge Georgia National Committeewoman, Ginger Howard, for her re-election to a third and final term. Kremer would defeat Howard on a second ballot at the Georgia Republican Party’s State Convention held May 18 in Columbus, GA, putting Kremer on both the Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party and one of three voting members from Georgia on the RNC.
Longstanding Georgia policy has required the RNC members to fund the duties of their office out of their own pockets as the GAGOP typically does not reimburse expenses for the National Committeeman and Committeewoman. Continuing to raise money for an organization that cannot accept outside funds is suspicious enough, even without the Kremers’ eyebrow-raising history of fines and other financial issues.
With it, is it any wonder why the Georgia Republican Party wouldn’t want to include the National Committeewoman in their statement regarding the SEB?
