The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cracks visible in Georgia delegation
Spectrum runs from loving Trump to wishing he’d go away.
No matter what he says or does this week at the Republican National Convention, a faction of Georgia conservatives will never support Donald Trump.
The real estate mogul has fractured his party unlike any other candidate or movement in decades, and many in Georgia are still divided between three splinter groups: unabashed Trump backers; reluctant, if skeptical, supporters of the presumptive nominee; and those who refuse to vote for him even when he becomes the party’s choice.
And the 76 delegates Georgia sends to Cleveland this week will be in the middle of the debate, a mix of rising political stars, seasoned veterans and newcomers who want to shape this year’s rol-
licking presidential contest.
Some in the delegation, the fifth-largest GOP contingent at the convention, have eagerly wrapped themselves in Trump’s embrace and staked their name and political future on his say-anything bravado. Among them is Bruce LeVell, who is tired of the hand-wringing over Trump he encounters at just about every Republican gathering.
“Every question I get is about how we grow the party,” said LeVell, a delegate who is also head of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. “The answer is that Trump has resurrected a voice out there that’s been dead.”
But many of Georgia’s delegates backed his rivals in the state’s presidential primary and still struggle over how enthusiastically to support his nomination. And at least one delegate vows to vote against his party’s likely nominee, even if it means he’s branded as complicit in helping Democrat Hillary Clinton win.
“I am one Georgia delegate that has expressed to my family and friends my inability to ever vote for Donald Trump,” said Bobby Booth, 59, a Marietta activist and a delegate. “Not only that, I am willing to do what I can to see that he does not get the nomination, much to the chagrin of some who seem to think he is the only option. I am looking for Door No. 3.”
And while the last-ditch maneuvering to block Trump’s nomination has all but petered out, it won’t signal the end of the Trump skepticism. Indeed, the internal struggle within the GOP seems assured of spilling over into Georgia’s 2018 contests, where his allies hope to make an imprint that lasts far beyond this year’s contests.
Already, one of Trump’s earliest Georgia supporters — state Sen. Michael Williams — has floated a run for secretary of state.
A Georgia GOP in transition
Georgia’s delegation to Cleveland represents an eclectic snapshot of the evolving party. It includes Attorney General Sam Olens and other elected leaders who supported Trump’s rivals in the primary, veteran activists previously devoted to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and first-time delegates drawn like a magnet toward Trump.
The contingent in Ohio also features former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ex-Georgia lawmaker passed over by Trump for the job of being his running mate but still honored with a speaking role. U.S. Sen. David Perdue, one of Trump’s top surrogates in Georgia, will participate in several panels throughout the week.
And Randy Evans, who helped beat back the effort to halt Trump last week in a marathon rules committee session, is to play a starring role in the delegate votes to come.
Each of the delegates, in one way or another, has been touched by the phenomenon that propelled the businessman to a commanding victory in the state’s March primary and has, at least so far, pre-empted Clinton from pouring more money and resources into turning Georgia blue for the first time since her husband’s 1992 victory here.
And yet Trump’s policy initiatives have alienated other Republicans who are uneasy with his vow to build a wall on Mexico’s border, calls for a ban on Muslim immigrants and promise to renegotiate trade deals with foreign countries.
Republican analyst Todd Rehm sees Trump as the embodiment of a tectonic shift in the Georgia GOP as it shakes off its roots in the moderate suburbs and takes a populist tilt. That transformation has injected a new level of economic protectionism that can look like it’s race-based when it’s directed at foreign competitors, he said.
“In Georgia, we grew from a suburban base that had grown up reading intellectual, conservative, free-market literature,” Rehm said. “And when Georgia became a Republican state, bringing a realignment of rural whites from South Georgia and the mountains, we thought it was because they believed in the same principles we did.”
Skepticism persists
And many of the delegates — including those who backed Cruz, John Kasich or Marco Rubio — remain conflicted over Trump’s rise. Consider former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, one of the most unlikely Republican surrogates for Trump. Barr bucked the Republican establishment in 2008 when he ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate, and he traveled the nation this year stumping for Cruz.
“I was a very strong Cruz supporter. I spoke for him, I traveled for him. I’m not a big Trump fan,” Barr said. “But I’m not going to Cleveland to be a ‘never’ person. I want to give it a positive take.”
Brandon Phillips, Trump’s campaign director for the state, said the turnout at Trump’s fundraiser in Georgia last month was the “definition of coalescing.” Gov. Nathan Deal, who was previously lukewarm over the party’s standard-bearer, co-hosted the affair, and he said former top fundraisers for his rivals wrote six-figure checks to Trump.
To LeVell, the Trump criticism seems nonsensical. Georgia Republicans constantly worry that changing demographics could one day imperil Georgia’s redstate status. So when a fellow Republican predicted a Clinton victory at a recent party gathering, he unloaded.
“When you ask someone new to come to your party, once you get them there, do you nurture them or do you just dog them out?”
But those skeptical voices aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Just ask Booth, the delegate who plans to vote against Trump.
“I believe in miracles. For just as I cannot support Mr. Trump, neither can I Mrs. Clinton for the same root reasons,” Booth said. “Some say I am turning the election over to Mrs. Clinton, but not really. I am simply adhering to my principles and convictions and seeking to vote for someone I think will do the most good for our country.”