Georgia GOP banishes former lieutenant governor after Harris endorsement



A former lieutenant governor of Georgia has been formally banished from the state Republican Party after he endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

On Monday, party leaders announced that ex-Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan had been expelled by unanimous vote after his single term in office "was marred by embarrassment and scandal," including a series of alleged attempts to undermine fellow Republicans.

Duncan, who served as second in command from 2019 until 2023 and in the state House from 2013 until 2017, campaigned "as a Trump supporting conservative," the party resolution claimed. However, once he entered office, he "sought openly to undermine and sabotage" the candidacy of other Georgia Republicans, including current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker.

Duncan also has a troubled history with the truth, the party indicated. He allegedly "falsely" implied that he had been endorsed by then-President Donald Trump. He also claimed "he graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology, played major league baseball as a member of the Miami Marlins and was a 'successful businessman.'"

'Geoff Duncan clearly decided to join with the Democratic Party, and particularly extreme elements of the Democratic Party.'

Duncan made no bones about his opposition to Trump in 2024. He not only endorsed President Joe Biden as well as Biden's replacement, Kamala Harris, but he also spoke at the DNC in August, calling on voters to "dump Trump."

Voters in Georgia and across the country did not heed his cries, and now that Trump is about to assume office once again, the Georgia GOP has officially cut ties with Duncan.

The resolution bars Duncan from all party property and events and prevents him running for office in Georgia as a Republican. It also expunges the previous endorsements he received from the party when he ran for the state House and for lieutenant governor.

"Geoff Duncan is no longer a Republican," Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon said in a statement to WSB-TV. "Geoff Duncan clearly decided to join with the Democratic Party, and particularly extreme elements of the Democratic Party."

The resolution demands that Duncan refrain from referring to himself as a Republican, and McKoon asked media outlets to characterize him as an "expelled Republican."

Duncan responded to the resolution to expel him by retweeting it, adding the message: "Hard to believe this is a good use of time for a party that’s only got a limited amount of time to figure out mass deportations, world peace and global tariffs. Learn how to take a victory lap not light another dumpster fire @JoshMcKoon."

H/T: Eric Daugherty

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Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan — who identifies as conservative — announces he'll vote for Biden



Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, has noted that plans to vote for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024.

"Unlike Trump, I've belonged to the GOP my entire life. This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass," Duncan declared in an opinion piece.

But while he plans to back Biden in the presidential contest, Duncan advocated for working to get Republicans elected to Congress to block the Democratic president from accomplishing his goals.

"Yes, elections are a binary choice. Yes, serious questions linger about President Biden’s ability to serve until the age of 86. His progressive policies aren’t to conservatives' liking," Duncan wrote. "But the GOP will never rebuild until we move on from the Trump era, leaving conservative (but not angry) Republicans like me no choice but to pull the lever for Biden. At the same time, we should work to elect GOP congressional majorities to block his second-term legislative agenda and provide a check and balance. The alternative is another term of Trump, a man who has disqualified himself through his conduct and his character."

"Trump has shown us who he is. We should believe him. To think he is going to change at the age of 77 is beyond improbable," Duncan wrote.

Duncan served as Georgia lieutenant governor from early 2019 through early 2023.

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Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor criticizes Trump phone call as 'inappropriate,' unhelpful, and 'based on misinformation'



The Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia said Monday that President Donald Trump's phone call with Secretary of State Brad Ratffensperger, in which the president appeared to pressure the secretary to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's electoral victory, was "inappropriate" and that he was "disappointed" at the president's conduct.

"I am 100% certified to tell you that it was inappropriate. And it certainly did not help the situation," Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN's "New Day." "It was based on misinformation, it was based on, you know, all types of theories that have been debunked and disproved over the course of the last 10 weeks."

The Washington Post on Sunday published a four-minute excerpt of what was reportedly an hour-long phone conversation between the president and Georgia's top election official. In the transcript of the call, partially published by Newsmax, Trump made several claims of voter fraud and other election irregularities, said there were approximately "300,000 fake ballots," and put pressure on Ratffensperger to "give me a break" and find enough fraudulent ballots, approximately 12,000, to change the results of the election. In response, Raffensperger and his attorney, Ryan Germany, disputed the president's claims, arguing that the data the president cited is incorrect and that the vote numbers certified by the state of Georgia are accurate, not fraudulent.

The report of the phone call immediately sparked controversy, with several former top U.S. officials suggesting that Trump had potentially committed a crime while the president's supporters demanded that the full audio of the phone call be released to put Trump's words in context.

Duncan, who supported Trump's campaign for re-election, also said he was "disappointed" at the president's questions for Ratffensperger and the tone the president used. He worries that the controversy will distract from the runoff Senate elections in Georgia on Tuesday, harming Republican chances for victory.

"I've continued to encourage everybody, including the president, to stay focused on tomorrow," Duncan said. "That phone call did absolutely nothing to help drive turnout for Republicans here in Georgia for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. I was disappointed and quite honestly I can't imagine anybody on his staff encouraging that call or not giving him the advice to hang up and move on to the next subject."

Sens. Loeffler and Perdue each face tough re-election challenges from Democratic candidates who feel the wind at their backs as Republican enthusiasm to vote is tamped down by a sense that GOP officials are not doing enough to support and provide evidence for Trump's claims of voter fraud. The Trump campaign and others filed more than 50 lawsuits in the wake of the presidential election, nearly all of which were either dismissed by the courts or dropped because of a lack of evidence to support claims of election misconduct.