Georgians At The RNC: An ‘Entirely Different Republican Strategy’

At the Republican National Convention, which wrapped up Thursday, the only Georgia politician in the featured speaking lineup was Democratic state Rep. Vernon Jones.

Jones broke with his party this spring to endorse President Donald Trump. Acknowledging that many might wonder about his presence at the convention he said, “And here’s the answer: the Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave their mental plantation. We’ve been forced to be there for decades and generations.”

The only other Georgian to speak during primetime was Herschel Walker, the former University of Georgia and professional football player, a longtime friend of Trump’s, who also strongly defended him.

“It hurt my soul to hear the terrible things people called Donald. The worst one is ‘racist,’” he said. “I take it as a personal insult that people would think I’ve had a 37-year friendship with a racist.”

Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, said the Republican convention emphasized more diverse voices, perhaps in an attempt to broaden the base.

It’s an attempt, she argued, that might not work because of the convention’s other messaging targeted to the party’s base, about being tough on crime.

“To present diverse faces claiming that Donald Trump isn’t a racist, and then, on the other hand, to invoke racial code words like ‘law and order,’ they may actually end up counteracting each other and have little to no effect,” she said.

University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the decision to exclude many of Georgia and the nation’s Republican politicians could have been strategic, to make room for different kinds of voices.

“I guess this is maybe an entirely different Republican strategy because it’s not just that it’s Georgians in marginal seats were not featured, neither were politicians from other states that are thought to be marginal.”

“Maybe this fits in with Trump trying to continue the narrative that he’s an outsider, that he’s not a professional politician,” Bullock said.

“But [Trump] may be doing his party and some of its endangered members a disservice by not giving them an opportunity to have a little exposure in prime time.”

Bullock said the Republican convention “has very much been the ‘Trump Convention,’ [with] the members of [Trump’s] family all playing prominent roles. It may be the decision was not to share the spotlight with Republican Senators from Georgia or from anyplace else.”

Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins all recorded videos for the convention, which aired before primetime earlier this week.

Gillespie said there could be other reasons for the exclusion of Georgia’s Republican politicians from the lineup. For someone like Perdue, a prominent Trump ally who is in a tight race with Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff, it could be “more of a liability to appear at the convention,” she said.

The intra-party fight between Loeffler and Collins, who is challenging Loeffler in the November special election, could be “dicey” for the party to wade into, Gillespie said. And including Georgia’s other politicians, such as controversial Republican Congressional nominee Marjorie Taylor Greene, could be distracting.

“In a nod to diversity and in a nod to President Trump really wanting to highlight his record, he probably wouldn’t want to create certain types of distractions,” she said.

Greene was invited to attend Trump’s Thursday speech in person.