Kemp’s Senate Race Exit and GA GOP Turmoil Threaten Republican Prospects

On May 5, 2025, Gov­er­nor Bri­an Kemp announced he will not run for Georgia’s U.S. Sen­ate seat in 2026, inten­si­fy­ing focus on the Geor­gia Repub­li­can Party’s inter­nal strug­gles. Crit­ics urge Repub­li­cans to with­draw endorse­ments of GA GOP Chair­man Josh McK­oon, cit­ing his mis­use of par­ty funds, and warn that with­out grass­roots efforts to “drain the swamp,” the par­ty risks los­ing Geor­gia in 2026. Travis Bow­den, McKoon’s senior advi­sor and for­mer exec­u­tive direc­tor of GA GOP Inc., was report­ed­ly fired and replaced by Justin Rice from North Car­oli­na at the RNC’s direc­tion. Despite his ter­mi­na­tion, Bow­den received unau­tho­rized pay­ments in Decem­ber 2024, rais­ing ques­tions about account­abil­i­ty for either Bow­den or McK­oon. The con­tro­ver­sies under­score lead­er­ship and finan­cial mis­man­age­ment with­in the GA GOP, threat­en­ing par­ty uni­ty and elec­toral suc­cess.

• Bri­an Kemp made an announce­ment yes­ter­day that he will not seek the sen­ate race in Geor­gia. Every­one and Any­one needs to remove their endorse­ment of McK­oon if they expect to win. And if the grass­roots are not in place to remove the swamp and get to work, repub­li­cans will lose Geor­gia in 2026. 
• Travis Bow­den is the senior advi­sor to Josh McK­oon, chair­man of the GA GOP. He was the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the GA GOP Inc. the RNC sent in Justin Rice from NC to replace Travis. When Travis left he was not sup­posed to receive any more mon­ey, the exec­u­tive board was told Travis was fired. Travis got pay­ment in Decem­ber 2024. Maybe Josh will answer for this or maybe Travis will answer for this?