MILWAUKEE — The thousands of Republicans gathering to nominate former President Donald Trump for the third time are arriving flush with confidence about his comeback bid.
Among them will be Georgia’s GOP contingent of 59 delegates and 56 alternates, along with other party leaders and elected officials.
Some, such as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and 3rd Congressional District nominee Brian Jack, have long been Trump loyalists. Others are veteran GOP stalwarts who spend their downtime working to energize voters.
A few are following a family tradition. Seanie Zappendorf, the Dawson County GOP chair, said she’s one of the first immigrants elected as a Republican convention delegate in state history. But the Taiwanese native is not the first in her family to serve. She proudly notes her husband’s aunt was an elected delegate to two past conventions.
In Milwaukee, the delegates aim to take advantage of the turmoil within the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s health and mental fitness after the incumbent’s debate performance in Atlanta sparked a mini-revolt against his candidacy.
With leads in most national and battleground polls, Trump has squelched most internal dissent within the Republican Party as he and his allies have taken near total control of its infrastructure.
Even his felony conviction in New York’s hush money trial and the pending election-interference case in Atlanta haven’t shaken the loyalty of his MAGA base.
But party leaders also acknowledge the race could mutate several times over before voters start casting ballots. The Republican National Convention could give Trump’s campaign one of its final chances to capture the attention of a distracted electorate.
“We have a chance to show we are very much united,” said Alec Poitevint, an executive and longtime Republican official from Georgia who has attended every party convention since 1976. “And we’ve got to use that chance to present that message to the American people.”
As Biden’s struggles within his own party deepen — about a dozen congressional Democrats have called for him to withdraw from the race — Republicans fear a polarizing misstep could shift the national debate toward Trump’s vulnerabilities.
At his first post-debate rally in Florida earlier this week, Trump gave Biden allies more grist by delivering rambling remarks riddled with misleading statements. Biden’s campaign aims to drive an even sharper contrast when the convention begins Monday, even as it struggles to snuff out the pressure to replace him on the ballot.
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin for the AJC
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin for the AJC
“All of these people have pie in the sky ideas about what we can or cannot do,” said state Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Democratic delegate who predicted the convention will remind Trump’s opponents why they need to close ranks around Biden.
‘It’s been hard’
Interviews with more than a dozen Georgia Republican delegates, a group of pro-Trump activists, donors and elected officials from all corners of the state, reveal conflicting emotions.
While many are unabashedly optimistic about Trump’s chances, particularly in a post-debate landscape reshaped by Biden’s dismal performance, some also express nagging worries about overconfidence. Many also acknowledge that, with roughly four months until the vote, surprise developments could shake the race.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
“As a competitive individual who was involved in sports most of my life, I would never feel like we have an advantage,” Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson said. “The fact of the matter is that it does not take long for either party to coalesce together, and it doesn’t take long for either party to divide.”
Several delegates notably laced their comments with words such as “pragmatic” to describe the GOP’s policies, an attempt to push back at Democratic efforts to paint Trump and his allies as far-right extremists.
Some echoed Trump in distancing themselves from Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation that includes calls to roll back climate change protections, disband the Commerce and Education departments, and deploy the U.S. military to the border with Mexico. The Heritage Foundation is a sponsor of the convention.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
“We’re coming together, and you’re going to hear a lot about policy,” said state Rep. Mike Cheokas, who represents an Americus-based district that includes former Democratic President Jimmy Carter as a constituent.
“We’re going to be talking about education, immigration and other issues that matter to voters,” Cheokas said. “There’s going to be a united front on our side, while the other side is in disarray.”
The sense of unity is new to many GOP activists scarred by Trump-driven turmoil for much of the past decade. While there are still plenty of internal critics of the former president, many of the most prominent are rallying around Trump despite misgivings.
Chief among them in Georgia is Gov. Brian Kemp, who beat back a Trump-endorsed rival in 2022 and recently acknowledged he cast a blank ballot in the state’s March presidential primary. Still, he has said repeatedly he will vote for Trump in November because “he’d be better than Joe Biden.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
“I think people are more motivated,” Cobb GOP Chair Salleigh Grubbs said. “If you can take the president of the United States and put him through the wringer like they have done to President Trump, it can happen to anybody.”
As much as Georgia Republicans hope that Biden’s struggles put the state out of reach, they need little reminder of what a determined Democratic base buoyed by a surge of independent support can accomplish.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
A coalition of Black voters, swing suburbanites and disillusioned Republicans helped Biden narrowly capture Georgia four years ago, making him the first Democrat to win the state since 1992.
Senior Georgia Republicans worry that lies about widespread election fraud could temper conservative enthusiasm. And some conservatives privately worry that evangelical voters could be turned off by changes to the party platform that hold that abortion should be left up to the states rather than outright advocate for a national abortion ban.
Kathleen Thorman, the former GOP chair in deep-red Gordon County, said she hopes the four-day convention puts on display a contrast between the “power struggle” across the aisle and a sense of GOP command on kitchen-table issues.
“Is there a shift, is there a change, are people hurting after the last four years? Absolutely,” she said. “The economy matters. Inflation matters. And it’s been hard.”
