Georgia Republicans are expected to unite behind the Donald Trump ticket, but one former officeholder is balking.
And the Peach State GOP chair warns there will be consequences for the apostasy of former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, who backs the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee over his party’s standard bearer.
In an open letter posted Friday to social media, Josh McKoon issued a series of credible threats against Duncan’s future in the Georgia Republican Party in the wake of his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, which saw him essentially double down on his previous backing of President Biden.
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“As Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, I write to demand that you cease referring to yourself as a Republican. You are not one,” McKoon asserts. “You are not and never will be considered a Republican ever again.”
The chair argues these “desperate and ridiculous endorsements of Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris for President, coupled with your inexplicable opposition in 2022 to [current LG] Burt Jones and Herschel Walker, not to mention your comical attempt to run for President as an independent candidate, are violations of the oaths of loyalty you repeatedly swore when you qualified as a Republican candidate for office.”
McKoon goes on to paint Duncan as an opportunist changing his political stripes to meet the moment, saying his “animus against President Trump makes little sense.”
“When you ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2018, you mimicked him like a chimpanzee, even going so far as to falsely claim his endorsement. You begged in 2020 for opportunities to speak on his behalf at Trump rallies and the Republican National Convention. But it has become clear that prostituting yourself to CNN as a Trump critic is now how you support yourself and your family. You will no longer do so claiming to be a Republican.”
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McKoon proposes a series of cures designed to seal Duncan’s fate in the party that once was his political home, including a state Republican executive committee resolution banning him from running as a GOP candidate given that any “loyalty oath” would be false.
He seeks a similar mechanism from the national party and a vow that Duncan will be “treated as a trespasser should you attend any event, meeting, caucus or convention of the Georgia Republican Party.
Every county Republican Party and Congressional District Party in the state of Georgia will be requested to issue you the same warning and condition.”
Duncan, for his part, frames his endorsement of and advocacy for Harris as a sign he is “committed to this country.”
“I’m willing to eat a little bit of humble pie here to do the right thing. And the right thing is to beat Donald Trump,” Duncan said in a recent CNN interview. “He’s reckless on a good day and dangerous on a bad day.”
He offered an “above the fray” type of endorsement in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed this week, with constructive criticism for Harris.
Duncan urged her to “distance herself from statements she made during the 2020 Democratic primary that have not aged well over time . . . admit that certain policies of the current administration need improvement . . . choose a vice-presidential nominee based on substance and governing ability rather than a cloned personality [and] step beyond the cozy confines of party base.”
Whether Harris has incentive to do any of this, of course, is an open question — especially given Duncan has endorsed her already. But polling of the state continues to show it will be as close as it was in 2020.
A Bloomberg-Morning Consult survey this week finds that in Georgia, Harris and Trump are tied with 47% support. A Landmark Communications poll released last week showed the race within the margin of error, albeit with a slight Trump lead.