Over the weekend, a Fulton County member of the governing State Committee of the Georgia Republican Party, Inc., our own Susan Opraseuth of GoReclaimGA, alerted “party” proponents that the GRP, Inc. had posted its “Notice to Republican Candidates for President of the United States of America” on a rarely used area of its website. This important document outlines procedures for gaining a position on the ballot for the Georgia Republican Presidential Preference Primary Election, set for March 12, 2024. The Notice came as a surprise, since Corporate Chairman and CEO, Josh McKoon, had failed to present the matter to what “shall be” his official state political party governing body for any consideration or approval whatsoever.

Though McKoon represents the TOTALLY CONTROLLING Georgia Republican Party, Inc., which is a NONMEMBER nonprofit under GA Corporations Code Title 14, he signed the Notice as Chairman of the “Georgia Republican Party” (GRP), which must operate under GA Election Code Title 21. There are definitely TWO entities involved in this confusing matter, as shown by this 2014 lawsuit against BOTH entities.

Whereas the official Georgia Republican Party shall establish and maintain committees WITH membership to support our Republican electors and our representative system of government guaranteed by Article 4 of our U.S. Constitution, the like-named GRP, Inc. is technically only a nonmember nonprofit corporation “wishing” to be a political party.

Mr. McKoon is King of a castle on a stage of corporate political theater.

To demonstrate what this chaotic dichotomy has created for presidential candidates and every Georgia citizen, here is a video of a disturbing corporate stunt they pulled at the State Fairgrounds in Perry, GA recently. On this day, the GRP, Inc. anticipated conditions threatening to its corporate interest by the civil expressions of what “should be” its political party members. These threats included wearing t-shirts promoting election integrity. Though McKoon again “switched” terms and advertised the event as a meeting of the “Georgia Republican Party,” he chose to act defensively and with law enforcement as a “private organization” (the GRP, Inc.) on the day of the event. Effectively, this allowed him to use corporate leverage against the State Committee, other “should be” party members, and electors desired to witness the meeting of their elected party representatives. This additional video explains the devolution of that day. Most beneficial to CEO McKoon, he was able to leverage the corporate shell game to perform a “gut check” on the personal loyalties of the people present. In the weeks following, he has conducted a steady string of digital votes on major business, with no meetings and no debate via a Rule passed by (no surprise) the GRP, Inc.

Meanwhile, candidates across the United States are arduously endeavoring to gain a position on the Republican ballot in Georgia for President. They must be able to participate in a legitimate and fully legal American election process here. This is the concern at-hand, amidst the foregoing shameful state political scene.

McKoon’s Notice includes a list of information that presidential candidates must submit in a request for consideration to be placed on the 2024 primary ballots in Georgia. It immediately appears to be well beyond what GA Law may deem as “procedural rules” to qualify through one’s self-declared Republican political party in Georgia.

One of the most glaring required “information” items on the list for candidates to submit is a payment for a “voluntary contribution of $25,000.”  

Imagine, as a candidate, being asked to pander to EACH state party by paying such exorbitant and uncommon “voluntary contributions,” only as a gamble. The requirement of the candidates to pay $25k to show campaign “viability” and show “established substantial support for nomination,” are entirely arbitrary standards created by McKoon and some number of his prestigious corporate executives and, perhaps, others in the syndicate.

Most candidates will likely be deceived that “Information #5” on the required list guides candidates to make their payment to the “Georgia Republican Party.” However, as previously mentioned, this is the old “member” GRP that has not been maintained since the formation of the like-named corporate entity in Feb 2014, interestingly under former Secretary of State Brian Kemp, just prior to his run for Governor.

There are also no known bank accounts for the old “member” Georgia Republican Party, the unincorporated entity.

In fact, on June 10, a State Delegate publicly asked McKoon if there would someday be an account for the registered member-based “grand ‘ol” Georgia Republican Party (GRP) into which donors could be assured their funds would be deposited. He answered in some form of affirmative, as if clearly aware of the problem, however does not appear to have solved this issue. Now that he is elected to what would “appear” is political party office, the castle with all of the bank accounts on the stage of political theater has his attention – the GRP, Inc.

According to recent public records and reports to the Federal Elections Commission, the ONLY entity with bank account agents is the non-member GRP, Inc., which is the active entity that has exerted total control of conventions, assets, and party affairs throughout Georgia. This is a huge problem because it is GA Election Code §§ 21-2-110 & 111, that established the governing state political party committees to protect compelling state interest, including its duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution and Georgia Constitution. Extensive case precedence also asserts the statutory requirement and legal basis that political parties in Georgia operate with membership of committees that must be specifically consistent with GA Election Code. This thereby prohibits their positioning under a different Code of Law, and further highlights improper inconsistencies between its “nonmember” articles and its marketed “member” Rules. The action basis of our political party to comply with GA Election Code is by “members of a committee that the party created.” As such, the presidential candidates and any donor appears to be engaging dealings with an entity that is falsely representing our official political party.

Of additional profound concern, the action of the GRP, Inc. directing presidential candidates to make these massive “voluntary contributions” in this somewhat coercive manner, may be against GA Election Code § 21-2-198.

The statute reads: “No qualifying fee may be assessed for presidential candidates or for candidates for delegate or delegate alternate whose names are listed on a presidential preference primary ballot.” In this Law, Georgia decided not to burden the candidates with costs. However, the Notice from McKoon screams that the process has now devolved into “party” PAY TO PLAY and QUID PRO QUO, despite the “waiverability” disclaimer at the bottom.

And there is yet another concern —- Does the candidate deposit the payment or count the money with McKoon and the syndicate before the corporate committee decides, as a donation “risk,” or after a positive decision has been made?

And, who exactly decides if a presidential candidate is “good enough” for Georgia Republicans to have on their primary ballots?

The committee of GRP, Inc. nonmembers who McKoon will be using to make the candidate determinations is one consisting of 28 corporate executives, and it is called the State Executive Committee (proper). However, the ENTIRE STATE COMMITTEE GOVERNING BODY is required for this act under GA Election Code §§§ 21-2-110, 111 & 193. Professional consultations with six of the most acclaimed professional parliamentarians in the United States have informed our understanding. Here is one from Kirby Glad of Utah.

To clarify, the term “state executive committee” (lowercase) in the Georgia Election Code, is the governing body specifically created by State Law to conduct the legally required actions of a state political party. Rules name it the STATE COMMITTEE.

According to Law, the state governing body is that which controls party affairs and conventions, determines appointment and membership of other committees, and has the authority to formulate, adopt, and promulgate rules and regulations consistent with Law. The “names, home addresses, and titles of the persons composing its governing committee and executive officers” (governing body) SHALL BE filed and kept current with the GASOS. In one of the most glaring and obvious indicators of noncompliance is that the neither Secretary of State Raffensperger nor Brian Kemp before him have required compliance with Law. Upon multiple request to the Open Records Division, the answer is “no records responsive to this request.” Three corporate officers are, however, on the annual registration for the GRP, Inc., and Secretary Raffensperger has accepted them as “governing” by allowed the GRP, Inc. to conduct party responsibilities in public elections and qualify candidates under GA Election Code § 21-2-153. 

As it has been for decades, the “State Committee” is the body named and chosen by the longstanding Republican Party (pre-2014) to govern, and it consists of 188 statewide, elected members. However, in his Notice, McKoon grants the responsibility for deciding presidential candidates to the 28-member State Executive Committee (proper) of the GRP, Inc. This act appears to be entirely unlawful, and egregiously both circumventing and disenfranchising of the 150 elected at-large statewide representatives, which complete the State Committee. Each of these individuals represents the interest of nearly 17,000 Republican electors, and their voice is crucial for our representative government to properly develop. This video shows McKoon saying what he knows regarding party governances, but has so far failed to do.

Since the GRP, Inc. nonmember nonprofit corporation appears to continue its noncompliance with GA Election Code, it appears to be ineligible to conduct party affairs. This would include “determinations” of whether a candidate can gain ballot access as a Republican. Under these failed parliamentary and legal conditions, everything it does is both invalid and void.

NO candidate should be required to conduct illegal dealings with any entity, let alone make massive financial commitments to an illegal entity representing itself as a “political party.” All candidates need our protection in order to fairly and lawfully gain their right to hold office, and NO citizen of the United States should be expected to forfeit these constitutionally significant decisions to a corrupt state and political party arrangement. At this rate, it appears that every candidate who attempts to qualify as a Republican in Georgia will receive corporate abuse, the extent of which is unknown. And, of course, the trail of abuse extends our journey of years.

Allowing this precedence during the formation of presidential primary lists will set King McKoon squarely on his political stage for the March 2024 general election qualifiers. He will also continue to sign paperwork for “whichever” entity is convenient in the moment. As McKoon has learned in the Fulton County Court System, the GRP unincorporated entity cannot be sued because it APPEARS TO NOT HAVE BEEN MAINTAINED AND IS, THEREFORE, NONCOMPLIANT WITH GA ELECTION CODE. Here is Brian Kemp’s 2022 qualifying paperwork for Governor that former Chairman Shafer issued him as “Chairman and Secretary of the State Executive Committee for the Republican Party of Georgia.” No mention of the ruled and regulated GRP, Inc. corporation!

The corporate officers and agents of the GRP, Inc., appearing to falsely represent themselves as working on behalf of a lawful political party, will continue to injure the elective rights of Georgia citizens until the citizens refuse to be constitutionally injured or until the state conducts its lawful ministerial duties. Hell could freeze over by then. Though our Republican Governor apparently considers our traditional party infrastructure to be unreliable (National Review, Feb 23, 2023 and Georgia Record, Sep 21, 2023), his Secretary of State Raffensperger, occupying his former position, effectively appears to have granted the GRP, Inc. a “Pen-Stroke Pass” to operate. In an August 2 email from his General Counsel, Charlene McGowan, she says that she “believes” that the office’s receipt of an uncertified copy of the Rules “satisfies filing requirement….” This response is eerily similar to Secretary Raffensperger’s statements about the 2020 election. No mention that the state can’t find the political party records from the past 20 years, described by our work in this article. 

It seems that is Secretary Raffensperger’s plan to DENY its election duties, and then call the citizens “election deniers,” yet again. 

Public statements by both State Chairman McKoon and former Chairman David Shafer, clearly present broad knowledge of the non-compliance. According to the June 8, 2023 minutes of the State Committee, there was majority acknowledgement that there is a need for “restatement of articles of incorporation of the Corporation in conformity with the Georgia Election Code.”

Nothing has changed since June, except for this “Pen-Stroke Pass” from McGowan. It has been five months. And, no motion of the State Committee to prolong illegality is valid, unless they are just corporate leverage for political theater, per usual.

This election matter has been in the public for nearly two years. In December 2021, a delegate leading an appeal on behalf of 53,000 electors in Chatham County, received the following email from attorney Vincent Russo, representing the Georgia Republican Party, Inc.:

Our presidential candidates are experiencing these issues, mostly unbeknownst to them. There are more questions. Is it essential that the corporate syndicate keep the voluntary “gift” even if the apparently illegal small corporate committee gives them an “Up” or “Down” vote? What if a candidates aims to impress them by writing a $50,000 check, but then doesn’t want it deposited until the determination is made? Who grants the “waiver” of the contribution and by what standards, since there is nothing about this in any of the procedural rules of the GRP, Inc.? Finally — What else may the Georgia Republican Party, Inc. decide to “do” to the presidential candidates either during ballot access determinations and thereafter?

These actions also resemble the endorsements of candidates, which is clearly prohibited by Rules 7.6 of the GRP, Inc. Under GA Code 21-5-3, these submitting individuals are considered “candidates.” Mr. McKoon is King of a castle on a stage of corporate political theater the likes of rising totalitarian regimes throughout centuries of world history. For more information regarding the corporate crisis of the GRP, Inc., which is actively injuring all Georgia citizens, we recommend the following resources:

This Explanatory Rumble Video and Accompanying Links

Clarifying Articles in The Georgia Record (Article 1) and (Article 2), among others

Hank Sullivan’s Substack, with truly excellent assimilations and explanations

More at goreclaimga.org or email [email protected] with questions and additional comments to this post.

To highlight concerns and push resolution, we at GoReclaimGA have been deeply researching and drafting documents on these issues since 2021. The journey has been published into numerous news outlets, submitted in countless petitions, and released on websites such as this one from a full year of Chatham County Appeals within which elected representatives of the 53,000 Republican electors thought was their political party. Thanks to the assimilation and logical presentation through outlets like the Georgia Record, Emerald Robinson, and Hank Sullivan’s excellent work on Substack since August of this year, more citizens are coming to understand. The rapidly escalating corporate takeover is deeply impacting not only our civil liberties, but also degrading our Georgia government representation. As always, GoReclaimGA is pleased to collaborate.