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Reprinted with permission: Georgia Republican Assembly
Read the Blog below, or direct at GRA website via: https://georgiara.com/blog/
Over the last few months, Debbie Dooley has decided to go on the attack against the GRA in her email newsletter. This one takes the cake! She makes at least ten false claims which we have detailed below.
You can read what she wrote here.
First, Dooley makes a lot of assertions about what happened at the Endorsement Convention, but the registration list will show that she never stepped foot in the convention. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She claims that others reported to her what happened, and she repeated what they told her. Professionalism as a reporter requires her to verify her facts before she publicizes them, and in this case she has recklessly reported malicious lies and falsehoods
Debbie Dooley mentioned above.
In the first paragraph of her article, Debbie calls the convention a “Nominating Convention,” which it is not. It has never been a “Nominating” Convention. All of our material shows that it is and only has ever been an “Endorsement” Convention. That’s the first Pinocchio for Debbie. 🤥
She also says in the first paragraph that the GRA Endorsement Convention had “just 124 voting members—a sharp decline from the membership strength under the Frost family’s leadership,” which is also not true. Registration for the event showed that over 200 tickets were sold for the event. 188 were reported to be present (guests & voting GRA members) when the Final Credentials Committee Report was given. At the time of the Preliminary Credentials Committee Report, 126 voting GRA members were present and when the Final Credentials Committee Report was given 136 voting GRA members were present. GRA 1st Vice President Brant Frost V acknowledged that this convention surpassed the one hosted in Newnan in 2023, which he said he had previously held the record on attendance. In the past, said Frost, “186 is the largest party endorsement convention we have ever had.” This year’s convention surpassed that one in attendance. By every reckoning, Debbie’s report on the numbers was wrong. That’s two Pinocchios for Debbie. 🤥🤥
She also wrongly states that in the past the GRA has been “under the Frost family leadership.” Several members of the Frost family are valued GRA members, and some of them have positions on the GRA Board and on certain committees. But our own web site will show that Brant Frost V has never held any position other than the 1st Vice President position in the organization, and that is the position he holds today. Alex Johnson has been the President of the organization over the last decade, and is now the Chairman of the organization. Nothing has changed in the official organizational structure of the GRA that has made the Frost family more or less in leadership than they have been in the past. 🤥🤥🤥
Debbie then claims that GRA leadership tried to “control the outcome” of the endorsement convention. She described the New Membership Committee Chairman Brian Roper, whose committee vets membership applications, as “a close ally of Darnell,” even though Roper is no closer to GRA President Nathaniel Darnell than any other GRA member in the organization. (Indeed, if Darnell is “close” to anyone, it would seem it would be Brant Frost V, since they were “best men” in each other’s weddings.) Roper does not vet the applications unilaterally, either, but meets with a committee of several GRA members who often spend a few weeks to review applicants before they are approved. Since December of 2024, the GRA has been advertising that the deadline to get approved to vote in the Endorsement Convention would be April 10th. Applicants had plenty of head’s up to apply early enough to be vetting in time, but many applicants waited until the last minute to apply. All applicants receive notification via email if they were approved or denied.
Then in the third paragraph of her article, Dooley says that “Nearly 30 applications from Josh McKoon Supporters were rejected, many without any notification.” This is also completely false. Over the last six months, the GRA has only rejected three applications, for their ties to the establishment, a lack of adherence to our principles, or for making public attacks against the GRA. Every single one of the three who were rejected were notified, contrary to what Debbie claims. 🤥🤥🤥🤥
We did, on the other hand, have many people who waited until the last minute to apply for GRA membership — both McKoon and Cross supporters — whose applications were not approved by April 10th because they were submitted too close to the April 10th deadline for the committee to be able to complete their vetting in time. Even James Lyle, the husband of National Committeewoman Amy Kremer, did not get his membership application approved in time for him to be able to vote in the Endorsement Convention. The committee performed their functions without regard to who the applicant was supporting for Chairman.
But none of the candidates should have been entirely dependent on new GRA members in order to attempt to win the endorsement. The GRA has had over 1,000 members before this year. Many of them are Josh McKoon supporters who did not bother to come to the Endorsement Convention. If they had attended, they might could have secured the endorsement for McKoon, and the April 10th deadline would not have applied to them.
Debbie then says that “an elderly man” was driven two hours to the convention only to be told his membership had been “denied.” Absolutely not true. Not a single person who showed up at the convention thinking they would be able to vote was told they had been “denied.” Applicants who were not approved in time to vote all received an email informing them about the 30 day rule, and saying they would not be eligible to vote at the 5/10/25 statewide endorsement convention. 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
Debbie claims in her email that the “GRA refused to accept proxy votes this year, despite allowing them in past conventions.” The GRA has never allowed “proxy votes” in conventions. The GRA Bylaws specifically do not and have never allowed proxy votes. The Bylaws only allow in-person voting. 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
What actually happened was that the GRA Board allowed the body to consider a motion to allow absentee ballots to be counted at the convention. Only nine such absentee ballots were received. This is the first time the GRA has considered this option. Two years ago, the convention body voted to allow email votes to come from members who lived far away from the convention location, but in the interest of election integrity the GRA Board did not offer that method this year. In order for such absentee ballots to be counted this year, the GRA members present at the in-person convention would have to vote to suspend the normal Bylaw requirement by a 2/3rds majority, and allow for the pre-mailed absentee ballots to be counted. The convention body considered that motion, had some lengthy debate, and that motion ultimately failed, and the 9 mailed in ballots were not included.
Further in her email, Debbie claims that once the Endorsement Convention reached the vote on “Assistant Secretary,” the “GRA leadership changed the rules.” No such thing happened, as anyone in attendance who was paying attention could testify. At the beginning of the convention, the body adopted convention rules which gave the body the option to have additional rounds of voting on a race, with each additional round eliminating the lowest vote-getter from consideration. The body had chosen not to exercise that option for the first few races. This did not change at the Assistant Secretary race, though, but actually at the 2nd Vice Chairman’s race. 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
After multiple rounds of voting led to Norine Cantor winning the endorsement for 2nd Vice Chairman of the GA GOP, the body decided to do it again with the Assistant Secretary’s race. That race went through two rounds of ballots, then Charles Stoker, GRA member from Chattooga County, made a motion for a third round of balloting. This motion passed with a majority vote. The final ballot included only Kylie Kremer or “No Endorsement”. This was the decision of the majority of the body at the convention—as they were empowered to do under the convention rules the entire time! If the body didn’t want to vote a third time, they could have defeated Stoker’s motion. Alex Johnson’s reputation for neutrality as Chairman is well known. He took motions fairly and as they came. 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
When no candidate in a race received 2/3rds of the vote, GRA members had the opportunity to make a motion for a run-off ballot, where the candidate who received the lowest number of votes would drop off.
The idea behind this is that if a member’s first pick preferred candidate lost, but they still wanted to see the GRA endorse someone in the race, they could vote again and change their vote from their first pick to their second pick. This is usually preferred by members who know there is an establishment candidate in the race and who want to solidify support behind one of the anti-establishment options.
This is what happened in the race for 2nd Vice Chair where there were 3 GRA members running and one non-member. Norine Cantor won on the 3rd ballot, likely because some members choose to consolidate support behind a GRA member in the race, even though Norine wasn’t their first choice.
For those who believed that it would be better for the GRA not to make an endorsement in that race, after their preferred candidate dropped off, they had that option, since “No Endorsement” was an option on every ballot. According to the convention rules passed by the body, it was appropriate for a motion to have a final run off between the last candidate and “No endorsement.”
Kylie Kremer won 2/3rds of the vote on the third ballot, after the second ballot dropped Caroling Jeffords, and the third ballot dropped JaQuon Stembridge, leaving the options as Kylie Kremer and “No Endorsement.”
This is how Marci McCarthy won the endorsement in 2023. When the first ballot between Marci McCarthy and Brian Pritchard failed to secure 2/3rds for either candidate, a motion was made for a second round of balloting between Marci McCarthy and “No Endorsement” and Marci won on that ballot.
To be clear, also, Kylie Kremer was not the only candidate at the 2025 GRA Endorsement Convention where the body voted between the candidate and “No Endorsement.” Jenny Eckman, the incumbent Assistant Treasurer for the GA GOP, is running for re-election with no opposition. She spoke at the convention and a vote was held for her race. In her case, the body voted to not endorse.
Interestingly, the convention body on Saturday did not have anyone motion for a second round of balloting in the Chairman’s race, likely because they knew there was such sharp division between their supporters and so many people were very committed to one candidate, and probably assumed none would want just “some endorsement.”
Dooley wraps up her false report on how the GRA Endorsement Convention went by saying: “The playbook being used by Nathaniel Darnell, Alex Johnson, and their allies undermines trust, discourages participation …”. To the contrary, the GRA followed GRA Bylaws, requiring the in-person delegates to make the decision about absentee ballots – not GRA leadership. The chairman enforced the convention rules adopted by the body, and allowed them to be amended by the body. The 2025 GRA State Endorsement Convention had more “participation” than any prior party endorsement convention. 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
Dooley also calls the leadership of Alex Johnson and Nathaniel Darnell “heavy-handed,” which could not be further from the truth. Throughout the preparations and execution of the Endorsement Convention, many GRA members praised both Johnson and Darnell for going above and beyond to run things fairly, according to the rules, and to ensure that it was the will of the membership that was enacted. They fought to make sure that no one in the top of the of the organization would put their hands on the scale, but let the membership decide freely who to endorse.🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥 That’s at least ten Pinocchios for Dooley in this post alone.
We have not bothered to answer Dooley’s attacks on the GRA over the last few months until this post from her which reached new depths for deception. The reason we have not answered her over the past few months is because her accusations were so blatantly not credible or else had already been answered years ago, and so we knew they were just harassment. But this recent example of her disinformation was beyond the pale to a new degree.
Debbie Dooley’s attacks on the GRA and its leadership, and her efforts to try to sow discord within the GRA are a big turn off to many in the GRA who are considering possibly voting for Josh McKoon (since no candidate in the GA GOP Chairman’s race won the endorsement). If McKoon’s supporters are willing to lie so thoroughly, however, in order to get the outcome they want, it is a bad reflection on their candidate. The McKoon campaign would do well to distance themselves from this kind of behavior and denounce it.
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