Georgia GOP too far 'down the MAGA rabbit hole' for many conservatives: journalist

01 May 2023

In the past, Georgia was a deep red state that went Republican in one presidential election after another. But President Joe Biden carried the Peach State in 2020, indicating that Georgia is much more of a swing state than it used to be. Georgia also has two Democratic U.S. senators: Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who defeated far-right GOP challenger Herschel Walker in a midterms runoff.

Georgia voters were willing to split their tickets in 2022. While Warnock ran as a liberal and was reelected, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams — a rock star in her party's liberal/progressive wing — lost by about 8 percent to conservative incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another conservative Republican, was also reelected in 2022.

In an op-ed published in The New York Times on May 1, editorial board member Michelle Cottle examines the state of the Georgia Republican Party, arguing that it has "gone so far down the MAGA rabbit hole" that even the right-wing Kemp is "steering clear of it."

"What's happening in Georgia is a cautionary tale for pluralism, an example of how the soul of a party can become warped and wrecked when its leadership veers toward narrow extremism," Cottle explains. "And while every state's political dynamics are unique, a variation of the Peach State drama could be headed your way soon — if it hasn't begun already."

According to Cottle, the Republicans who are faring well in statewide races in Georgia tend to be non-MAGA conservatives.

Cottle observes, "Some Republican incumbents took offense last year when the Georgia GOP's Trump-smitten chairman, David Shafer, backed Trump-preferred challengers in the primaries…. Those challengers went down hard, and Mr. Kemp in particular emerged as a superhero to non-Trumpist Republicans."

Kemp deciding to skip the Georgia GOP's 2023 convention in June, Cottle says, underscores his need to distance himself from far-right MAGA extremists.

"Republican critics say that the party culture has become steeped in the paranoid politics of MAGA and election denial," Cottle notes. "And in the current environment, 'everyone must pledge their undying loyalty to Donald Trump above all else,' says Jay Morgan, who was an executive director of the state party in the 1980s and now runs a public affairs firm in Atlanta."

Michelle Cottle's full New York Times op-ed continues here(subscription required).

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