There is a new bright flame of optimism and determination in Southwest Georgia’s Republican Party. The District held its 2019 convention last weekend and elected a diverse group of new leaders.
Delegates elected Brandon Phillips as District Chairman. Brandon served as the Georgia campaign manager for Donald Trump.
Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District stretches across 29 counties from Middle Georgia’s Macon in Bibb county to West Georgia’s Columbus in Muscogee county, down the Alabama border to Seminole, Decatur, and Grady counties on the Florida border. Geographically it is rural farm country with the exception of three major urban voting blocks in Macon, Columbus, and Albany.
Republican Political consultants have historically written off the 2nd District as an impossible hill to climb. In 2010, Thomas County State Representative Mike Keown came within 5,000 votes of putting the district in the R column.
The next year, the state legislature drew new district lines and strengthened the Democrat hold on the 2nd by adding Macon and Bibb County to the 2nd District and moving strong Republican counties, Lowndes, Thomas, Brooks, and all of Worth into the 8th District.
Although the district may have gained strength for Democrats in the congressional race, Republicans gained in local races. School boards, county commissioners, sheriffs, and other county constitutional officers shifted to Republican seats.
The new leadership team of the 2nd District Republican party is looking to continue those gains. Additionally, they are not yielding any ground.
One notable example is the new chairman of the Dougherty County Republican Party, Tracy Taylor. Delegates at the district convention also elected Tracy to the State Committee.
Tracy is an African-American who voted Democrat for years. As Tracy took an honest look at the rhetoric of the Democrat talking points and the reality of Republican policy, he started to question.
The more Tracy questioned, the more he realized that the values he held aligned more closely with the Republican party. He saw how Democrats presumed his vote merely because of his race.
Now Tracy is a leader taking positive ideas to develop good policy, not based on race, but on values that are common to Southwest Georgians. As the Democrat party moves farther to the left, the Republican party in Southwest Georgia is taking a positive message to the people.
They are taking a message of ideas and values that is a striking contrast to the socialism and radical stands of the Democrats. 2nd district Republicans are optimistic and determined and their message is working.
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