ATLANTA– Amy Kremer stood outside the White House on January 6, 2021, telling thousands of Donald Trump supporters that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
“Hello deplorables,” she said, embracing a label Hillary Clinton once directed at Trump’s followers.
Kremer, a conservative activist from suburban Atlanta, was not part of the mob that stormed the Capitol hours later as Congress met to recognize Democrat Joe Biden as Trump’s successor. But it was Kremer’s group that secured the permit for the “Save America” rally, where Trump told the crowd to “fight like hell,” and she was one of the most active fundraisers in the “Stop the Steal” campaign. movement that advanced the lie that Biden’s victory was stolen.
As Trump pursues a return to the White House, Kremer is trying to win one of Georgia’s two seats on the Republican National Committee. The votes at a state party convention Saturday are expected to show how preoccupied the Republican Party in Georgia and elsewhere is with the 2020 elections.
Kremer argues that the RNC did not do enough to fight for Trump or protect others who fought for him, such as the 16 Republicans in Georgia who falsely claimed to be valid Trump voters in a state that Joe Biden won.
“It is not enough to just embrace conservatism,” Kremer told a party group on April 24. “We have to stand up and fight. And the RNC has not done that.”
But like many other state parties, Georgia’s Republican Party has fractured. Gov. Brian Kemp created a rival fundraising and political operation after Trump attacked him for supporting the 2020 election results. The rift widened as some party leaders backed former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s failed Trump-backed challenge to Kemp in 2022. Neither Kemp nor his allies will attend the convention.
Some Kemp supporters disparage the state party as irrelevant and say Republican elected officials better reflect the views of all Republicans in Georgia. But the party remains a training ground for future candidates, Kemp will only be governor until January 2027 and Georgia’s majority-Republican legislature continues to translate activist demands into law.
“You can’t dismiss it,” said Jason Shepherd, a former GOP chairman in suburban Atlanta’s Cobb County who left state party affairs over his differences with Trump supporters.
Delegates to the state convention will elect a man and a woman to the national party’s governing body Saturday in Columbus. It’s not that the incumbents seeking reelection are Trump critics. Jason Thompson and Ginger Howard proclaim their loyalty. Thompson, an attorney, was among the attorneys who helped Trump ask courts for recounts and favorable treatment after Election Day in 2020.
Thompson and Howard are both calling on the national party to reimburse the state party for more than $1.5 million it spent defending the 16 fake Trump electors. Three have been charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, while others have taken immunity deals to testify for prosecutors.
But they also warn that Georgia Republicans need experienced leaders who can secure resources to win the November election in a battleground where victories by Biden and two Democratic U.S. senators have shaken a generation of Republican control.
“There’s more going on at the RNC than just the election integrity part,” Thompson said on April 24. “Obviously I think this is the most important part, especially now. But you also need someone who can raise money.”
Howard is actually under fire for not being confrontational enough.
‘Don’t confuse my sweetness with weakness. I’m a fighter,” Howard said.
Josh McKoon, a former MP who was elected speaker last year, has tried to calm some of the conflict. He explicitly supported Howard at the April 24 meeting, saying she is doing “an excellent job.”
Thompson is under attack by opponents over the work his wife and daughter did for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is despised by Trump and party activists for his defense of Georgia’s 2020 results.
“It’s the appearance of being associated with the devil himself, which is Brad Raffensperger,” one activist told Thompson last month.
Thompson says neither his wife nor his daughter had anything to do with the way Raffensperger runs the election. He calls it “ridiculous” to suggest his family is benefiting from Georgia’s use of ballots from Dominion Voting Systems. Many Republicans are demanding that Georgia use ballots that are marked and counted by hand, citing distrust of machines fueled by conservatives.
Thompson’s challengers include the party’s second vice chairman David Cross and Jason Frazier, who was denied a Republican seat on the Fulton County Board of Elections because Frazier has questioned the eligibility of thousands of voters.
Cross is among a group of anti-establishment officials elected last year. Cross supported retaining First Vice Chairman Brian K. Pritchard, who was ousted by the Republican State Committee on May 10 after a judge found Pritchard had voted illegally nine times. Many Republicans saw the findings as undermining their arguments that the state should prevent fraudulent voting.
Cross argues that current leaders do not represent what Republicans want and says pro-Trump forces must complete their takeover.
“One of the most important issues we need to address now is grassroots engagement,” Cross told party members Monday in Forsyth County, a Republican stronghold north of Atlanta. “There are a lot of people who are seriously demoralized.”
Frazier says his experience researching voter rolls is an asset the RNC needs. Even as the party has been slow to invest in reaching voters, it has promised a 100,000-person election integrity program. Thompson takes partial credit, promising there will be lawyers “everywhere” to challenge Democrats, but Frazier says that’s not enough.
“Election integrity must be one of the most important, if not the most important, issue if we are to win future elections,” Frazier said on April 24. “It has not been a top priority in the past. It has to be like this.”
In addition to Kremer, Shawn Cross also challenges Howard. David Cross’ wife said Monday that her lack of experience is a strength.
“We need more people to stand up and not just vote. Voting is not enough,” said Shawn Cross. “The system is rigged, we all know it is rigged.”
It’s that sense of resentment and desire for confrontation that all challengers are counting on.
“We never went to the Capitol,” Kremer said on April 24. “We didn’t tell people to go to the Capitol. But the point was that people wanted to do something. So people marched to the Capitol. And we all know what has happened since then. The federal government is armed against us.”
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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
