Failing to broaden the Georgia GOP’s appeal with Black voters could have dire electoral consequences for the party in the future, according to Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
The GOP candidate for governor and Trump-endorsed frontrunner in the party’s May 19 primary made the stakes for increasing support with Black Georgians clear during a Feb. 28 speech at the Georgia Black Republican Council’s annual masquerade ball.
Donald Trump won Georgia in 2024, but last year voters angry about the rising cost of living helped Democrats flip state House District 121, which includes solid red parts of Clarke and Oconee counties. Democrats also defeated Republicans in two statewide office races against GOP incumbents on the Public Service Commission.
Jones said “the left” winning Georgia in 2026 and beyond would help them control politics across the nation.
“We cannot let that happen,” Jones told the crowd. “That’s the reason why we have to broaden our tent. We have to reach out to folks and disenfranchised Democrats and we have to reach out to those independents right now.”
In February, Georgia GOP leaders launched a “Patriot Pipeline” campaign to recruit more Black Republican candidates to run for state House seats held by Democrats. Camilla Moore, chairman of the Georgia Black Republican Council, estimates there are 35 Black GOP candidates running for state and local offices across the state this year. She said that includes 25 Black Republicans running for seats in the state House and the state Senate and a number of candidates running in statewide office races.
This year, the House and Senate Republican caucuses agreed to pay qualifying fees for Black GOP candidates for the first time ever, according to Moore, as long as those candidates aren’t running against other GOP contenders. Qualifying fees range from $400 for state lawmaker candidates to $6,900 for a justice of the Supreme Court, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Moore said the party wants voters who are dissatisfied with the seeming lack of positive impact some Democratic leaders have had in Black communities throughout Georgia to know they have “options” in the form of conservative candidates who look like them and come from the same culture.
“When it [comes] to representation, race can make a difference,” Moore told Capital B Atlanta on Monday. “If you have someone culturally akin to you, then that representation becomes a little easier because you are a part of that community.”
The crowd of dinnergoers inside the Georgia Freight Depot in Atlanta contained hundreds of Black Republicans, but none of them was a sitting member of the Georgia General Assembly.
In fact, there are 236 elected lawmakers in the state legislature but not a single one of them is a Black Republican.
Former Democrat Mesha Mainor, who switched parties while in office, was the last Black GOP legislator to serve before losing her reelection bid to Bryce Berry in 2024. She is now running to be the next superintendent of Georgia schools.
There aren’t any Black Republicans working in statewide elected offices, either. Former Public Service Commissioner Fitz Johnson, who was appointed to the job by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021, was the most recent one. He lost his seat to Peter Hubbard last November.
The lack of Black representation among Georgia GOP candidates at a time when President Trump has helped the party make small but critical Black voter gains has been a concern for Black Republicans like Lawrenceville resident Shelia Jones.
Polls show Trump is less popular with Black voters now than he was more than a year ago. And higher support for the president hasn’t resulted in more support for Black GOP candidates like Herschel Walker and Jeremy Hunt.
Jones, a self-described Black conservative and member of the Georgia Black Republican Council, said in her view, the issue isn’t malice against Black folks among GOP party leaders. It’s a defeatist attitude some Republicans have about appealing to the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting bloc.
“It’s money. It’s influence. It’s endorsements,” she said at the masquerade ball. “The GOP is fighting the last 70 years of Black folk automatically [voting] Democrats.”
U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan McColumn is one of the Black GOP candidates working to change the narrative this year. The retired U.S. Army brigadier general from Macon threw his hat into the Georgia U.S. Senate Republican primary in March.
He said he decided to run because the current slate of candidates lacks experience in the armed forces. He said he wants to increase oversight of federal government spending, strengthen Black families through welfare reform programs, and help unite Georgians through a Biblical world view.
“The Republican Party is not perfect but, in effect, operates as close to a biblical world view when compared to the Democrat Party,” McColumn said via email. “I am a Christian, and therefore, support the righteousness of God — pro-life, only two genders, marriage between one man and one woman, one nation under God, meritocracy, care for the babies, disabled and elderly, etc.”
McColumn said Republican voters should choose him in the GOP primary because he has more technical expertise than the other candidates. He said that includes three master’s degrees, one of which is in strategic studies with a focus on national security, which he suggested makes him more qualified to deal with subjects like the Iran war.
“I am the only candidate with national security acumen to include veterans and military,” he added.
State House candidate Andre Stafford is a Black GOP candidate shooting his shot to replace a progressive Democrat in a dark-blue district. The 25-year-old restaurant manager knows his bid to unseat state House District 42 incumbent Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna, is a long shot, but he’s going for it anyway.
“There was no [Republican] running in my district and I wanted to step up and make sure that he had an opponent because he is a socialist,” Stafford said of Sanchez during a recent Capital B Atlanta interview.
Sanchez’s campaign website refers to him as the “first Democratic Socialist” ever elected to the Georgia General Assembly. Running as a proud progressive didn’t stop him from defeating GOP candidate Diane Jackson by a more than 26-point margin in November 2024.
Stafford acknowledged that the district, which includes large swaths of Smyrna and southern Marietta, is home to a majority of Democratic voters, but he still thinks he has a chance to pull off an upset.
He opposes Sanchez’s opposition to Georgia’s school voucher program, which critics contend pulls funding away from financially starved public schools in Black neighborhoods that are already struggling to stay open. Stafford and others argue Black and brown children shouldn’t be forced to attend inferior schools just because of where they live. A growing number of Black parents are starting to agree with him.
“I think with education and going door to door, hitting the ground, we can really make an impact,” Stafford said. “We just need better leadership, and someone’s gonna fight for the people.”
State Senate candidate Eric Helvy is charting a similar path in District 38 in hopes of challenging incumbent RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, in a fall general election matchup.
Helvy is a Ben Hill resident who has served on Neighborhood Planning Unit-P for seven years and now serves as vice chair of the body’s public safety committee. He said he wants to reduce the number of break-ins that have been occurring in the district by supporting neighborhood watch programs. He also wants to give property tax relief to Black seniors other other homeowners being impacted by gentrification.
“Some of the things that are happening in our community [are] not being talked about,” Helvy told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday. “There are some people who may not agree with my platform; however, we can all agree we need tax relief.”
Read More:
- Black Georgia Republicans Back Trump’s Iran Airstrikes
- How Georgia’s Black Republicans Are Capitalizing on Trump’s Election Victory
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the last time a Black Republican was elected to the General Assembly. Willie Talton was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012.
