Atlanta — Amy Kremer stands near the White House on January 6, 2021, telling thousands of Donald Trump supporters that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
“Hello, miserable people,” she said, embracing the label Hillary Clinton once lobbied for for Trump’s followers.
Kremer, a conservative activist from suburban Atlanta, was not part of the mob that stormed the Capitol hours later when Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden as Trump’s successor. But it was Kremer’s group that secured permits for the “Save America” rally, where Trump told the crowd to “fight like hell,” and she is part of the “Stop the Steal” movement, which promotes the lie that Biden’s victory was a lie. It was one of the most active fundraisers. She was stolen.
As Trump seeks to return to the White House, Kremer is trying to win one of two Georgia seats on the Republican National Committee. The vote at the state party convention on Saturday is expected to show just how spent Republicans are in Georgia and everywhere else heading into the 2020 election.
Kremer argues the RNC has not done enough to fight for Trump or protect others who fought for him, like the 16 Georgia Republicans who falsely claimed they were valid Trump electors in a state won by Joe Biden .
“It’s no longer enough to stand up for conservatism,” Kremer told a party group on April 24. “We need to stand up and fight, and the RNC hasn’t done that.”
But like many other state political parties, the Georgia Republican Party is divided. Gov. Brian Kemp created a rival fundraising and political operation after Trump attacked him for supporting the 2020 election results. Divisions deepened as some party leaders backed former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s failed challenge to Kemp in 2022, backed by Trump. Neither Kemp nor his allies will attend the convention.
Some Kemp supporters disdain the state party as irrelevant, saying its elected officials better reflect the views of all Georgia Republicans. But the party remains a training ground for future candidates, Kemp will remain governor only until January 2027, and Georgia’s majority Republican legislature continues to translate activists’ demands into law.
“You can’t ignore that,” said Jason Shepherd, a former Republican chairman of Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb who stepped down from state affairs due to disagreements with Trump supporters.
Delegates to the state convention are scheduled to elect one man and one woman to the national party’s governing body Saturday in Columbus. It’s not that incumbent lawmakers seeking re-election are criticizing Trump. Jason Thompson and Ginger Howard inspire loyalty. Thompson, a lawyer, was one of the lawyers who helped Trump ask the courts for a recount and preferential treatment after Election Day 2020.
Thompson and Howard are both demanding that National repay the state party for more than $1.5 million it spent defending 16 fake Trump electors. Three were prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, while the others signed immunity deals to testify for the prosecution.
But they also warn that Georgia Republicans need an experienced leader to ensure they have the resources to win the November election in a battleground state where the victories of Biden and two Democratic U.S. senators shook up a generation of Republican dominance.
“There’s more to the RNC than the election integrity part,” Thompson said April 24. “Obviously, I think that’s the most important part, especially right now. But you also have to have someone who can raise the money.”
Howard is basically being criticized for not being confrontational enough.
“Don’t mistake my sweetness for weakness. “I am a fighter.” Howard said.
Josh McKoon, a former council member who was elected chairman last year, has tried to defuse some of the conflict. He explicitly endorsed Howard at the April 24 meeting, saying he was doing a “great job.”
Thompson has come under attack from opponents for his wife and daughter’s work for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Brafensperger is despised by Trump and party activists for defending Georgia’s 2020 results.
One activist told Thompson last month: “It looks like there’s a connection to the devil himself, and that’s Brad Raffensperger.”
Thompson said neither his wife nor daughter had anything to do with how Raffensperger ran elections and that it was “ridiculous” to imply that his family benefits from Georgia’s use of Dominion Voting Systems voting machines. Many Republicans are calling for Georgia to use hand-marked and counted ballots, citing a mistrust of machines fueled by conservatives.
Thompson’s challengers include the party’s second vice-president, David Cross, and Jason Frazier. He was denied a Republican seat on the Fulton County Board of Elections because Frazier disputed the eligibility of thousands of voters.
Cross is one of a group of dissidents elected last year. Cross supported retaining First Vice Chairman Brian K. Pritchard, who was removed from office by the state Republican Committee on May 10 after a judge found that Pritchard had voted illegally nine times. Many Republicans saw the findings as undermining their argument that the state should prevent voting fraud.
Cross argued that current leaders do not represent what the Republican Party wants and said pro-Trump forces should complete their takeover.
“One of the key issues we need to address right now is grassroots engagement,” Cross told party members Monday in Forsyth County, a Republican stronghold north of Atlanta. “There are a lot of people who are seriously demoralized.”
Frazier argues that his experience scrutinizing voter rolls is a much-needed asset to the RNC. The party has promised a 100,000-person election integrity program despite being slow to invest in voter outreach efforts. Thompson claimed partial credit, promising that there would be lawyers “everywhere” who could challenge Democrats, but Frazier said that wasn’t enough.
“If we are to win future elections, electoral integrity must become one of the most important issues, if not the most important,” Frazier said on April 24. “In the past, this wasn’t a top priority. That’s the way it should be.”
In addition to Kremer, Shawn Cross is also challenging Howard. David Cross’s wife said on Monday his lack of experience was a strength.
“We need more people to stand up and not just vote. Voting alone is not enough,” said Shawn Cross. “The system is rigged. We all know the system is rigged.”
It is that dissatisfaction and desire for confrontation that all challengers expect.
“We didn’t go to the Capitol,” Kremer said April 24. “We didn’t tell people to go to the Capitol. But the problem was that people wanted to do something. So people marched to the Capitol. And we all know what happened since then. “The federal government used weapons against us.”
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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
