ATLANTA — Georgia Republicans will welcome former President Donald Trump to Atlanta Saturday evening. He’ll rally with them at the same location in Downtown Atlanta where Vice President Kamala Harris packed the house Tuesday.
"I’m just super stoked for tomorrow and being in a great big room full of Georgia patriots," said Cobb GOP chair Salleigh Grubbs on Friday.
Earlier this month, Grubbs was a Georgia delegate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump looked like something akin to invincible. He’d just survived an assassination attempt and picked a young running mate to face Joe Biden.
Then Biden flipped the Democratic ticket.
Now Trump faces Harris, who wowed a raucous crowd in Atlanta Tuesday – and gave hope to Democrats when she took Biden’s place on the ticket.
Harris augmented her appearance with an opening act from Megan Thee Stallion – who’d sold out State Farm Arena three times a month earlier.
Yet Grubbs thinks Trump is still the favorite to win Georgia and, she says, will deliver a better rally.
"There will be more positivity. There will be more people there who were not there to show up for a rap concert, but they’re there to show up for America," Grubbs said.
Two Republicans who won’t show up for Trump’s event are Gov. Brian Kemp, who had other plans – and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan who has become a vocal critic of the former president.
Duncan broke with Trump after the former president urged his angry followers to go to the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. A riot ensued. Duncan has been an anti-Trump fixture on CNN ever since.
"If we're going to fix this party and go forward, the party that’s conservative but not crazy or angry, then we've got to do it without Donald Trump," Duncan told CNN May 7.
But with the Republican Party embracing Trump’s candidacy this year, it is now officially turning on Duncan.
The Georgia GOP’s chairman Josh McKoon posted a searing note on social media addressed to Duncan saying “you are not and never will be considered a Republican ever again,” promising steps to formally expel Duncan from the GOP.
Grubbs endorsed McKoon's eviction effort. "I think it’s high time for someone to call out the behavior of someone who is a so-called Republican," Grubbs said. "The GOP is the big tent party. We like to embrace everyone who embraces our ideals. But once your ideals change, I don’t think you have any choice but to call attention to those details."
On X, Duncan responded by saying he sleeps well at night having endorsed Harris, and invited McKoon to buy his book called "GOP 2.0" after Trump loses in November.