Georgia GOP Chair Seat up for Grabs, Outcome Could Influence Whether State Goes Blue or Red

Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer has not yet declared that he will seek a second term for that position, but Cobb County GOP Chair Jason Shepherd wants Shafer’s seat.

Shafer, however, has told allies that he plans to seek a second term and will announce shortly.

Whichever of the two men prevails will likely influence whether Georgia ends up a politically blue or red state.

Shepherd told The Georgia Star News Tuesday that Shafer has not followed through on past assurances.

“Shafer made a lot of promises to really work with the grassroots of the party and to really build the county party structures. In those two years, we haven’t seen that. David Shafer had promised to build a legal team, in his own words, to keep the Democrats from stealing the election at the ballot box. By the time we hit the election we had no legal team built,” Shepherd said.

“The Democrats had a very technical and advanced plan for absentee ballots, and we lost absentee ballots overwhelmingly, especially this past election where 50 percent of all votes were cast by absentee ballots. While Chairman Shafer seems to want to point fingers at everyone else, you look at what he actually ran on two years ago and he has not fulfilled a single one of those campaign promises.”

Shafer tweeted congratulations Tuesday to Georgia Republicans’ volunteer leadership team and what he said were their many accomplishments.

Among them:

• 13,907 volunteers recruited and trained

• 53,800 volunteer engagements

• 2,808,697 doors knocked, almost three times the number knocked in 2018

• 7,739,011 calls made

• 154 staff on the ground, deployed in every part of the state

• 166,000 Donald Trump and David Perdue yard signs distributed by volunteers

Shepherd said Tuesday that he was “a strong supporter” of former U.S. President Donald Trump and admired what the former president did in office.

“Like a lot of people, he [Trump] wasn’t my first choice in 2016. I had been a Rubio supporter,” Shepherd said.

“But as soon as Trump clinched the nomination I was telling everyone that Donald Trump has won the nomination. We must get behind him. It doesn’t matter who you supported in the primary.”

Georgia Republicans are scheduled to elect their new state chair at their state convention in June.

– – –

Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “David Shafer” by David Shafer. Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by Autiger. CC BY-SA 2.0.