Home / Featured Segments / Part 1: Preparing for Georgia’s 2026 Elections: GOP Trends and Lessons from the Past

Part 1: Preparing for Georgia’s 2026 Elections: GOP Trends and Lessons from the Past

  • Is the elec­tion going back to Democ­rats in our state? Are we ready for 2026? Or will 2026 be the elec­tion year that the democ­rats gain con­trol under the Gold Dome. For us to pre­pare for 2026, we have to white board where we are. Trump has won and it is a very excit­ing time in Amer­i­ca, but in 2026 or 2028 Don­ald Trump will not be on the bal­lot. The next big cycle in Geor­gia is in 2026 it will be open for the con­sti­tu­tion­al offices. 
  • We have got­ten to the point, the slo­gan is Vote Repub­li­can or Vote Red. We don’t have a clear rea­son why? It’s just bet­ter. 
  • In 1999 we were all wor­ried about what would hap­pen. Right around 2000 the Great Repub­li­can took over Geor­gia. Repub­li­cans start­ed win­ning the con­sti­tu­tion­al offices and state offices. 
  • The Great Flag Promise and how to con­trol the base. In pol­i­tics you make a promise that doesn’t upset this side but can stir this side and get them into a fren­zy and it is a win win. Right around 2003 repub­li­cans in Geor­gia that led the way in the great repub­li­can takeover in Geor­gia used what is work­ing today in con­trol­ling the base with the Great Flag Promise. We have an enor­mous amount of pock­ets in the repub­li­can side. 
  • We have the GA GOP chairs. Ralph Reed was very instru­men­tal in grow­ing the par­ty in 2001–2003. Sue Ever­hart brought most of the con­trol fall under repub­li­can con­trol between 2007 and 2013. In 2017 John Pad­get incor­po­rat­ed the par­ty and cre­at­ed GAGOPInc. There was a decline in the par­ty. 
  • Repub­li­cans have become the par­ty of appoint­ments in Geor­gia. 
  • Our first repub­li­can to get the insur­ance com­mis­sion­er in 1994. Today’s insur­ance com­mis­sion­er is John King and was appoint­ed by Gov­er­nor Bri­an Kemp. 
  • Our first repub­li­can to get the School Super­in­ten­dent in 1994. Lin­da Schrenko and she got 8 years in fed­er­al prison. 
  • Our first ag com­mis­sion­er was in 2011 with Gary Black. 
  • Our first Labor com­mis­sion­er was in 2011 with Mark But­ler. We are wait­ing for Gov­er­nor Kemp to appoint a new com­mis­sion­er after the death of Bruce Thomp­son. 
  • We start­ed in the late nineties but didn’t com­plete it until 2011
  • AG was turned in 2011 with Sam Olens, then in 2016 Gov Nathan Deal appoint­ed Chris Carr
  • Sec­re­tary of State the posi­tion was turned repub­li­can in 2007. In 2010 the gov­er­nor Son­ny Per­due appoint­ed Bri­an Kemp to be Sec­re­tary of state. 
  • LT gov­er­nor the first repub­li­can was Casey Cagel in 2007. 
  • Gov­er­nor’s office repub­li­cans got with Son­ny Per­due in 2003. The last repub­li­can was in 1872. Son­ny Per­due today still draws $500K with the board of regents. 
  • Per­due ran on a promise to allow a statewide ref­er­en­dum on the flag of Geor­gia. At this time the con­fed­er­ate flag is very con­tro­ver­sial. It was implied that the ref­er­en­dum would be on the 1956 flag, the ini­tial bill HB380 leg­is­lat­ed for 2 ref­er­en­dums. The first on a redesign and the sec­ond, if the redesign was reject­ed between the pre and post 1956 flags. Per­due ener­gized rur­al white vot­ers by promis­ing a ref­er­en­dum on the state flag, which the leg­is­la­ture stripped of its large con­fed­er­ate bat­tle cross 2 years ago. 
  • We haven’t had the con­sti­tu­tion­al offices that long. 
  • In the 146 state leg­is­la­ture in Geor­gia, 2001 democ­rats held all the sen­ate major­i­ty posi­tions; the demo­c­rat speak­er of the house was Tom Mur­phy. The 158 gen­er­al assem­bly. The house has 180 seats 100 repub­li­cans and 80 democ­rats; the sen­ate 56 sen­a­tors 33r repub­li­cans and 23 democ­rats. A year ago it was 102 repub­li­cans to 78 democ­rats. Two years ago 103–76 in the house. In the sen­ate it was 34–24. In just 4 years, 154 gen­er­al assem­bly 116 repub­li­cans  in the house we lost 16 repub­li­can seats in the house. The sen­ate was 37–18 we lost 4 in the sen­ate. Repub­li­cans maxed out in the Gen­er­al assem­bly 153 the house had 119 repub­li­cans, the sen­ate was 38 repub­li­cans. Gen­er­al assem­bly 150, the pow­er was trans­ferred to David Ral­ston. We have lost 19 repub­li­cans in the house and 5 in the sen­ate. We are head­ed in the wrong direc­tion. 
  • The cen­sus in 2000 gave us 11 dis­tricts: 8 repub­li­cans and 3 democ­rats. In 2002 we went to 13 dis­tricts: 8 repub­li­cans and 5 democ­rats. We got 2 more dis­tricts but we didn’t grow the par­ty. We got a seat from illi­nois. We are the num­ber one state that is import­ing democ­rats. As a par­ty we are not address­ing that, we are busy in decline as a par­ty. In 2012, we got the 14th dis­trict so now we have 9 repub­li­cans and 5 democ­rats. In 2012 we drew the strongest repub­li­can dis­tricts in the coun­try. In 2022 the new con­gres­sion­al map reject­ed a spe­cial ses­sion to redraw a map to be approved by the judge. This is where we dilut­ed the 9th and 14th dis­tricts and drew a new 7th and lost the old 6th and 11th dis­trict. Democ­rats are play­ing the long game and are turn­ing the state. Appeals court ques­tions roles of race in Geor­gia redis­trict­ing case. This is still going on. They are say­ing we don’t have enough minor­i­ty dis­tricts and oth­er races in geor­gia. We are not done with our redis­trict­ing in Geor­gia. Who are we bat­tling… Eric Hold­er and Barack Oba­ma. They fight every­day to redis­trict. 
  • Could we lose a state office in Geor­gia? Yes. No one is putting these into place any­thing to stop this. 
  • In the state of Geor­gia democ­rats have already flipped the US sen­ate seats.
  • We had super­ma­jori­ties in the state house and state sen­ate. We had both US sen­ate seats. All the con­sti­tu­tion­al offices. 
  • The only way repub­li­cans can keep the majori­ties is to redraw the dis­trict lines. 
  • The state of North Car­oli­na the repub­li­cans have lost their super­ma­jori­ties they are going back­wards at a rapid pace and Don­ald Trump won the state 51–49. Trump won Geor­gia 51–48. We are going in the wrong direc­tion. 
  • The only thing that Josh McK­oon had to do was get out of the way. He only had to cre­ate enough rev­enue to pay the legal fees and keep David Shafer out of jail. That was suc­cess­ful. Josh McK­oon promised that he would fix the fil­ing of the state which he has not done. Every­thing was set for Don­ald Trump, it was the per­fect storm. 2024 did not rely on Josh McK­oon and the GA GOP to get Trump elect­ed. RNC and Turn­ing Point flood­ed the state with mon­ey. Josh McK­oon stayed out of the way. He does not have the man­age­ment skills for 2026. He can not put us on a win­ning track to stop the decline. We have to grow this par­ty. At the rate we are going, one of our con­sti­tu­tion­al offices will go demo­c­rat. 

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