Fans react during UFC Freedom 250, near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2026. REUTERS Eric Lee
The Atlanta Journal Constitution says the Republican Party is all over the ‘unity tour’ bus in Dallas this week, with lots of smiles, back slaps and posing for cameras. But the party back home in Georgia appears to be more a war party than the fun kind.
“Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon led the state Republican contingent at the party’s first midterm convention in Dallas, a gathering aimed at showcasing unity. Back home, though, McKoon keeps getting reminders of the fissures inside his own party,” reports the AJC. “First came Vernon Jones, the party-switching former Democrat who lost his Republican bid for secretary of state in June. Jones spread a false rumor that McKoon planned to step down as state party chair.”
“This is a lie,” said McKoon. “It is also a statement from Vernon Jones. But I repeat myself.”
But then came the Georgia Republican Assembly, a far-right MAGA-styled faction of the Georgia GOP that has been feuding with McKoon and his slightly more establishment enclave for years. The activist GRA appears to be storming ahead with a lawsuit over the state party’s decision to let Brad Raffensperger qualify for the governor’s race in opposition to a 2025 convention resolution from the state party barring Raffensperger from running as a Republican.
Raffensperger, according to the GRA, “does not have the faith and confidence of the Georgia Republican Party,” and they pronounced him “repugnant to its brand [and] to the principles of the United States of America.”
Raffensperger, as Georgia secretary of state in charge of elections, became President Donald Trump’s target after he lost Georgia in 2020 — when Trump mounted a pressure campaign to ensure that a follow-up manual vote recount overturned his loss.
“Georgia Secretary of State, a so-called Republican (RINO), won’t let the people checking the ballots see the signatures for fraud,” Trump posted on X at the time. “Why? Without this the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless. Everyone knows that we won the state.”
Regardless, Raffensperger qualified — but then went on to lose the May primary to a more Trumpy opponent. The Georgia GOP is trying to get the GRA suit dismissed, arguing in part that Raffensperger’s defeat rendered the dispute moot. But in a Thursday filing, the GRA argued the case is bigger than Raffensperger, reports AJC. They now want a judge to decide whether resolutions passed by state convention delegates should be applied to future elections.
McKoon did not hide his contempt for the move: “There probably are things that could be done eight weeks before Election Day that are dumber than this, but none come to mind at the moment.”
McKoon then threatened to seek attorneys’ fees and sanctions if the party prevails in court. He’s also asked the State Ethics Commission to hit the GRA and its affiliated PAC nearly $150K for alleged campaign finance violations.
“None of the ‘plaintiffs’ can pretend they have any interest in winning this year when they pull this sort of absurd stunt,” McKoon wrote, “but I guess they need a gimmick to raise money to pay the fines assessed by the Ethics Commission against the GRA.”
