Local GOP chairs reflect on the RNC and Georgia's key role moving forward

It has been a long four years as Republicans have waited for the 2024 Republican National Convention convenes in Milwaukee to nominate Donald John Trump for a second term as their candidate for President. While the delegates of all the states and territories are gathered in Milwaukee, Republicans around the country are watching and keeping up with the television and social media coverage, and local Republicans are certainly no exception.

“Georgia is really important in this election. They say this is a purple state but honestly I believe that we are much more red than that. We are going to have get out and work hard and get people to the polls,” Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Cathy Russell said.

The majority of the population of Georgia does reside within a 10-county radius around metro Atlanta area but the rural Georgia vote has been crucial in statewide elections for Republicans like Governor Brian Kemp in 2018.

“Glascock’s voter participation lands us in the top five counties in the state most every election cycle. We still have half our voters not showing up at the polls. But Georgia’s large cities do not completely represent the state. It’s the rural counties that are the heartbeat of the state, where the blue-collar hard-working people reside. Our voice should matter also, and we should be courted” as much as Atlanta voters. We want to see, meet and talk with the candidates also,” Glascock County GOP Chairwoman Tara Rabun said.

The election cycle of 2024 has been one that is completely unpredictable. It’s been full of court cases, vitriol rhetoric, and an assassination attempt on former President Trump wounding him and two rally attendees killed. With all that has happened, the Republican National Convention kept business going in Milwaukee pledging unity behind Trump.

“There’s been a grateful and a prayerful attitude of everyone that I’ve met. Everyone is grateful that the President Trump wasn’t injured more seriously and everyone’s heart and prayers go out to the ones that were injured and the one that lost their life,” said GA GOP State Committee Member and RNC Alternate Delegate John David Stallings. Stallings is also entering the first year of his third term as Mayor of Thomaston, Georgia.

Many of Trump’s former political foes such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio, former UN Ambassador and primary challenger Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and South Carolina Tim Scott gave full throated endorsements of Trump. The biggest surprise was the announcement of Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance who was selected to be Trump’s running mate.

“Senator Vance, or ‘The Other J.D.’ as I like to call him, is a good pick for Vice President. He will bring a unified position with President Trump, with a strong voice of the rural people in our Country. I believe his age will also help to energize the ticket with younger voters,” Stallings said.

While formally nominating Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for President of the United States is the main task of the convention, the party must also adopt its official platform. Creating and adopting the 2024 Republican Party platform has created a dichotomous situation for the party. Two generations of Republicans that were raised on the traditional conservative ideas of Reagan and Bush are fighting hard to keep their waning voices heard as the MAGA movement embraces more of populist conservative philosophy.

Russell readily agreed with the Republican Party embrace of Trump’s America First agenda. Georgia delegate Suzi Voyles, who has a political pedigree that goes back to Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum and the Reagan administration is serving on the committee that is crafting the 2024 platform.

Creating a stronger economy by re-instituting permanent tax cuts, returning American businesses back on shore, and restoring America’s energy independence are cornerstones of the 2024 platform.

Though the Supreme Court of the United States has a conservative majority, both parties have had issues with decisions the court has made. There is a bipartisan movement which the RNC has supported called the Keep Nine Amendment.

“I am most proud of our resolve to put America first across every area through the policies mentioned above. I am also very proud that the platform highlighted an independent Judiciary Branch and brought to the forefront the commitment for the bipartisan Keep Nine Amendment prohibit court packing or court shrinking. The SCOTUS shall have nine members, no more and no less. I am very disappointed that in after the events of last Saturday with the attempt on the President and others, including the loss of a father’s life, that we did not take a strong stand on the dignity of all Life. Life is the First Freedom and Republicans have held fast to protecting the personhood of the most vulnerable from the unborn to natural death,” Voyles said.

During the final two nights of the convention delegates and those watching all over the country heard from Vice-President candidate J.D. Vance and Donald Trump who formally accepted and addressed the RNC.

“We have had four years of terrible policies under Joe Biden. Gas prices are so high, food also, and healthcare has went up so much,” Russell said.

Russell added that the Jefferson County Republican Party has already put close 150 Trump signs up and eagerly await the Trump Vance signs when they become available.

One of the most important issues that this election cycles faces is voter integrity and transparency of the election process.

“We have the most awesome election board in the state. Of course we have poll watchers, but the Jefferson County Board of Elections is great to work with and very transparent through the entire process,” Russell said.

Local Republicans that want to get involved can go straight from watching the convention to being a part of the 2024 elections. Jefferson County GOP meets at the Rabun Community Center in Wrens on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6 PM. In Glascock County they meet at the Gibson County Community House, 565 Braswell Park Lane, on the third Monday of each month at 6 PM.

“This month we have a guest speaker on the rural voting initiative that is going to come here and help us come out with some strategies to get out the vote. We have already been doing some post cards and cleaning up voter rolls. It’s going take all of us working hard, together to make sure we win in November. If someone wants to get involved we welcome them to come out to a meeting,” Russell said.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Local GOP chairs reflect on the RNC and Georgia's key role moving forward