Exactly one name will be on the Republican presidential primary ballot on March 24: That of incumbent Donald Trump.
The Georgia GOP has joined several other state party organizations that have barred all other candidates.
Georgia officials announced Monday that the party’s executive committee had considered requests from Trump and four other candidates -- President R19 Boddie, Rocky Da Le Fuente, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld -- before unanimously deciding to omit all but the president.
Georgia GOP chair David Shafer said in a statement that Trump was the only candidate “with any significant level of support among Republican voters in Georgia who ‘unambiguously’ pledged to support the Republican nominee for president.”
(That's a pledge Trump himself famously didn't make in 2016.)
Walsh accused the Georgia GOP of “calcifying around a cancerous criminal.”
“Rather than uphold our values and embrace healthy political debate and discourse, the Georgia Republican Party bosses have chosen to disenfranchise their own voters simply to protect a man who is unfit for office,” he said.
And Weld blasted the party's decision in a Tweet late Monday:
"Apparently @realDonaldTrump's bromance with Putin extends to emulating the Russian's approach to elections. The #GAGOP just decided the Georgia Republican Presidential Primary ballot will have only one candidate on it: Donald Trump. What is DJT afraid of?"
State Democrats, too, announced the 18 candidates who will be featured on the primary ballot.
The list includes the two newest candidates - former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, a former Navy admiral, also made the list even though they both dropped out of the race this week.
The full list is below:
Michael Bennet
Joseph R. Biden
Michael R. Bloomberg
Cory Booker
Steve Bullock
Pete Buttigieg
Julián Castro
John K. Delaney
Tulsi Gabbard
Kamala Harris
Amy Klobuchar
Deval Patrick
Bernie Sanders
Joe Sestak
Tom Steyer
Elizabeth Warren
Marianne Williamson
Andrew Yang
Insider’s note: This item was ripped and expanded from the Morning Jolt.
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