COLUMBUS — A far-right candidate who organized a pro-Donald Trump rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the deadly riot was elected Saturday to a key party post by Georgia GOP activists.
Amy Kremer won 52% of the vote at the state GOP convention to serve on a Georgia seat on the Republican National Committee, capping a heated debate that revolved around whether incumbent Ginger Howard fought hard enough to reverse Trump’s defeat.
Separately, activists also supported Jason Thompson in a three-way race against far-right activists who focused their campaigns on election fraud conspiracies.
They fought over a vaunted job in the grassroots world of political activism. There are only three Georgia seats on the RNC committee — GOP chair Josh McKoon holds the third — and its members help orchestrate the party’s convention and set its platform.
Neither Howard nor Thompson could be considered a moderate. Howard has long been a party activist who has helped elect waves of Georgia Republicans, while Thompson is a co-founder of an ultraconservative party faction.
But each faced accusations that they were too complacent after Trump was narrowly defeated by President Joe Biden in 2020, making him the first Republican to lose Georgia in nearly three decades.
”The inmates have definitely taken over the asylum when Ginger Howard is considered a moderate,” said Jay Morgan, former executive director of the Georgia GOP.
Hyosub Shin/AJC
Hyosub Shin/AJC
Kremer wasn’t part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. But she proudly told conservative audiences while campaigning for the post that she obtained the permit for the “Save America” rally before the attack.
“It’s not enough to just espouse conservative values anymore,” Kremer told a recent conservative gathering. “We have to stand up and fight — and the RNC hasn’t done it.”
Thompson, meanwhile, beat challenges from David Cross, an election conspiracist who recently won a Georgia GOP leadership post; and Jason Frazier, who has challenged nearly 10,000 voter registrations under Georgia’s 2021 election law.
At local meetings, Thompson sounded incredulous at attempts to frame him as weak-kneed, noting that he helped lead the charge to depose former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.
“I have a lifetime of conservative activism,” he told one gathering. “You know me.”
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