NEW REPORT: Georgia Republicans Worry Intra-Party Feuds “Could Hurt Key Senate Runoffs”

GOP Leaders Forced to Deal With a Party “Beset With Infighting,” While Democrats Travel the State Talking to Georgia Voters About the Need For New Leadership

A new Wall Street Journal report details growing concerns among Georgia Republicans that their intra-party feuding this month “could hurt key Senate runoffs” and “cause long-term damage.” The Republican Party is “beset with infighting” as President Trump has spent the past few days “attacking top Georgia Republicans.” Under pressure from their party leadership in Washington, Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue joined in and leveled unfounded claims against GOP election administrators.

Now state GOP leaders are grappling with “the internal strains” as they try to rally support for two weak, flawed incumbents in January’s runoff. One former Republican state representative bluntly acknowledged that “this could really go off the rails,” while former Senator Saxby Chambliss admitted the party infighting needed to die down because Republicans face a “competitive” runoff election. And while Republicans are grappling with messy infighting in their own ranks, Democrats are united and traveling the state to mobilize voters across Georgia to send new leadership to the Senate.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Wall Street Journal: Georgia Republicans Worry Trump Feud Could Hurt Key Senate Runoffs

By Cameron McWhirter and Lindsay Wise

November 16, 2020

Key Points:

• The Georgia Republican Party is beset with infighting, as leading Republicans in the state come under public attack from President Trump and his supporters following his apparent defeat by President-elect Joe Biden there—the first loss by a GOP presidential candidate since 1992.
  
• The internal strains come as state party leaders are trying to rally support for two sitting senators facing Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.

• Energizing Mr. Trump’s loyal base is essential to the GOP’s runoff strategy, and Republicans in Georgia and in Washington, D.C., would like to see the president train his fire on Messrs. Ossoff and Warnock. But Mr. Trump, apparently preoccupied with a continuing recount of the state’s presidential results, instead spent the past few days on Twitter attacking top Georgia Republicans: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both once considered allies of Mr. Trump.

• “This could really go off the rails and really cause long-term damage,” former GOP state Rep. Buzz Brockway said Saturday.
  
• More than a dozen Republican officials and strategists said they worried the intraparty feud was distracting from the runoff effort and could hurt the party’s chances in 2022, when the governor and one of the Senate seats will be on the ballot.

• Sens. Perdue and Loeffler last week took the extraordinary step of calling for fellow Republican Mr. Raffensperger to resign, alleging election mismanagement. They didn’t offer evidence for that assertion. Mr. Raffensperger wasn’t notified of the call until he saw a mass email sent to media outlets. He refused to resign.
  
• Former Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) said he hoped the infighting would die down so the party could unify behind Sens. Perdue and Loeffler but added, “No one party is going to dominate forever. We did dominate for a period of time. Now it’s competitive.”
  

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