Less than a week out from their annual convention, Georgia Republicans are descending further into turmoil as their fractured state party continues to fight amongst themselves. This is yet another example of how Donald Trump’s leadership has left the state party in disarray as they pinch pennies trying to cover the legal fees of election deniers while their own extreme MAGA Republican Governor Brian Kemp refuses to help his own state party raise money. Whether they’re ousting members of their party’s leadership or struggling to pay mounting legal bills, the Georgia GOP continues to exemplify how Donald Trump’s leadership is leading Republicans further and further into chaos. 

Key Point: “With many mainstream Republicans following Gov. Brian Kemp’s lead and steering clear of the organization, a MAGA-friendly activist base led by former state Sen. Josh McKoon has taken the reins of the party. On his watch, the party has tried to restore ties with state leaders while steering more than $1.8 million toward the legal defense of a trio of party figures charged in the Fulton County election interference case. But that hasn’t quelled the feuding within the party.”

AJC: Internal feuds flare ahead of Georgia GOP annual convention

By: Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Van Brimmer

• A week before hundreds of activists gather in Columbus for the Georgia GOP’s annual convention, the party is facing new internal turmoil.

• With many mainstream Republicans following Gov. Brian Kemp’s lead and steering clear of the organization, a MAGA-friendly activist base led by former state Sen. Josh McKoon has taken the reins of the party.

• On his watch, the party has tried to restore ties with state leaders while steering more than $1.8 million toward the legal defense of a trio of party figures charged in the Fulton County election interference case.

• But that hasn’t quelled the feuding within the party.
  
• The latest came Friday when party activists voted to strip first vice chair Brian Pritchard of his leadership post after a judge ruled he voted illegally nine times while serving probation for a felony check forgery sentence.

• Though the vote was overwhelming, Pritchard framed himself as a political martyr and complained that party leaders “marched” him out of the meeting after he lost the vote. He still plans to attend the convention on Friday.

• McKoon said Pritchard was escorted out after he tried to hold an unauthorized news conference outside the meeting with an unnamed ally who was “trespassing on private property.”

• He also said he hopes to release a video and transcript of the meeting “so people can judge for themselves what took place.”

• Pritchard won’t be the only far-right figure jockeying for attention during the two-day GOP gathering in west Georgia.

• Tea party organizer Amy Kremer is running against Ginger Howard for a seat on the powerful Republican National Committee. Kremer boasts of helping to organize the rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the mob storming the building.

• Jason Thompson, another of Georgia’s RNC members, is in a three-way race with David Cross, a far-right election conspiracist who is the party’s second vice-chair; and Jason Frazier, who has challenged nearly 10,000 voter registrations under Georgia’s 2021 election law.