Members of the Fulton County Republican Party (FCRP) have yet to elect a chairperson, despite talk that they had scheduled an election to settle the matter this past Saturday.
GOP officials at the state level may have to help resolve the conflict.
Acting Chair Betsy Shaw Kramer said Monday that a third election to sort out the affair once and for all remains unscheduled.
“Because they are doing electronic voting it is going to take some time to set it up,” Kramer said.
“The state party is doing that. Not me.”
Incumbent Chair Trey Kelly, meanwhile, told The Georgia Star News by text Monday that he was still waiting for someone to schedule the election.
FCRP members convened in April to elect a new chair. They had to pick between Kelly — the incumbent who is an establishment Republican — or Opraseuth. Opraseuth strongly supports former U.S. President Donald Trump. But Fulton County Republicans tussled over who ultimately prevailed because of voting methods that many people questioned. Kelly won that first vote. Several party members demanded a second and more transparent vote — which Opraseuth won. Kelly challenged the second vote.
Opraseuth sent a letter to Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer Monday and told him “the end result of this contested race rests exclusively upon the issue of election integrity.” She requested that Georgia GOP State Committee members step in.
An Opraseuth supporter said this month that the candidate does not have a database of 330 delegates she needs as she campaigns to replace Kelly — even though she’s entitled to have it. The database contains the phone numbers and email addresses for delegates who will vote to elect a new chair.
Opraseuth, in Monday’s letter, said this matter must conclude — and properly.
“Trey Kelly and his former administration, by their own admission, did not secure the vital records/documentation necessary to provide a list of eligible delegates,” Opraseuth wrote in Monday’s letter.
Georgia Republican Party Executive Director Stewart Bragg told The Star News Monday that he had no comment.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Betsy Shaw Kramer” by Fulton County Republican Party.
