The Georgia Hour, episode 86: Josh McKoon’s GA GOP Chaos: Secret Hires, Shady Payments While Georgia Turns Blue

Geor­gia GOP Chair­man Josh McK­oon faces scruti­ny for ques­tion­able lead­er­ship, from hir­ing Travis Bow­den with­out exec­u­tive board approval to pay­ing him $21,000 after his fir­ing. McKoon’s finan­cial deci­sions, includ­ing $19,000 to Roset­ta Stone Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, raise con­cerns about favoritism, a dis­con­nect from the pur­pose of the repub­li­can par­ty as 6 coun­ties in Geor­gia shift more demo­c­rat. With lob­by­ists dom­i­nat­ing Geor­gia and the elec­tion integri­ty bills stalled in the leg­isla­tive ses­sion, McKoon’s lead­er­ship is under fire as the GA GOP strug­gles to main­tain con­trol.

• Con­gress­man Bri­an Jack says that Upson Coun­ty Chair­woman Lisa Pierce was instru­men­tal in his campaign’s suc­cess, host­ing mul­ti­ple vot­er mobi­liza­tion events. Through her lead­er­ship Upson Coun­ty deliv­ered Pres­i­dent Trump the most votes ever received in the county’s 200 year his­to­ry. 
• How Don­ald Trump has remade America’s polit­i­cal land­scape. Don­ald Trump’s vic­to­ry in 2024 was not an out­lier. It was a cul­mi­na­tion of con­tin­u­ous gains by repub­li­cans in much of the coun­try each time he has run for pres­i­dent. The graph­ic shows that the largest demo­c­rat gains have been in the Atlanta area. The largest bluest dot that has shift­ed is in Geor­gia. Demo­c­rat strong­holds are increas­ing­ly islands. Only a few iso­lat­ed areas have moved sharply in the democ­rats direc­tion. Out of the top 10 that shift­ed demo­c­rat since 2012, 6 out of 10 are in Geor­gia. This is why Salleigh Grubbs can­not be the 1st vice chair of the repub­li­can par­ty if we are to stop this tread of the demo­c­rat shift. In Cobb coun­ty it has shift­ed from R+12 to D+15 a shift of D+27, now Salleigh was not chair for the entire time but she has over­seen the coun­ty go more blue. You are watch­ing Geor­gia turn blue. Cobb coun­ty with Don­ald Trump on the bal­lot Cobb coun­ty shift­ed to Har­ris when the oth­er Atlanta coun­ties did not shift. 
• Josh McK­oon will not go to an event where the ques­tions are locked in for him and it is set up. 
• The AJC knows that 2026 is their chance because Trump is not on the bal­lot. 6 of 9 coun­ties that shift 25 points demo­c­rat sur­round Atlanta. 
• There is a chance that Bud­dy Carter could jump back into the dis­trict 1 race. Chatham coun­ty com­mis­sion­er Patrick Far­rell is tak­ing steps to run for Bud­dy Carter’s posi­tion. To chal­lenge Kan­diss Tay­lor for the seat. 
• Travis Bow­den was hired by Josh McK­oon, two weeks after the 2022 elec­tion and the exec­u­tive board didn’t know any­thing about it. Josh made the deci­sion and decid­ed what he would be paid. A year lat­er Travis was fired and the RNC put in their guy. But Travis con­tin­ued to be paid by the GA GOP with a Christ­mas bonus totalling $21000 after he was fired. 
• If you are a friend of Josh you get mon­ey from the GA GOP. On April 4, 2025, Roset­ta Stone Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and John Garst received $19,000 labeled com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­sul­tant. What Josh does on his zoom meet­ings, if he brings in $3 he is enti­tled to give away $1 to his friends. 
• The GA GOP paid a ver­i­zon bill in the amount of 1725.76, how many peo­ple have a cell phone issued by the GA GOP? 
• Josh McK­oon and oth­ers are angry because we are talk­ing about finances. They don’t want their par­ty to end. 
• Every­one is talk­ing about endorse­ments. Trump is the busiest man in the world, deal­ing with tar­iffs, ter­ror­ists, Rus­sia, Ukraine the last thing that pres­i­dent Trump is con­cerned with is the endorse­ment of a Geor­gia chair­man. Michael What­ley is the RNC chair, Michael What­ley doesn’t want to deal with some­one that will ask ques­tions. They need peo­ple that will go with the flow. Trump sent out the same endorse­ment for sev­er­al chairs only alter­ing a lit­tle lan­guage. 
• After the con­ven­tion in 2023, Josh had a karaoke par­ty. Josh nev­er shared any­thing with BKP as 1st vice chair. Then there is the fish fry 3 months lat­er for the state com­mit­tee meet­ing in Per­ry. Every­thing explod­ed in the 8th dis­trict with the Per­ry Fish Fry and Paper Bal­lots.  
• Travis Bow­den worked every angle he could to whip every­thing he could to go against BKP. And Josh McK­oon put BKP in front of the state com­mit­tee and treat­ed BKP as a dog. 
• BKP phone call with Josh McK­oon. Will be released today. 
• Sun­day night Josh tells peo­ple on the zoom call. While a new law was signed into law the new process in select­ing a board of elec­tion with the coun­ties that had pro­bate judges admin­is­ter elec­tions. This is the lat­est lan­guage in board selec­tions. Wait for it to go to court, how can one coun­ty do one thing and oth­er coun­ties do oth­er things. Gov­er­nor Kemp signed this into law. These polit­i­cal stunts they con­tin­ue to do that are lies. 
• Geor­gia is now run by lob­by­ists. They are not going to allow the con­trol to be lost. The two big leg­is­la­tion that made it though is the lob­by­ist bills, Tort reform and Roundup bill. Elec­tion integri­ty bill did not pass.