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In this image from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin arrives for the verdict in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool)(Photo: AP)

The verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial seemed to reopen the partisan split over race and justice in America for Arizonas congressional delegation.

The states Democrats embraced the guilty verdicts against the former Minnesota police officer who killed George Floyd last year either as appropriate or as a way to address larger social inequities. Two of the states four House Republicans used the occasion to attack Democrats as hypocritical in overlooking the words of one of their members over the weekend.

Accountability. Finally. Now we keep working towards justice and major reform, said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., in a tweet shortly after the verdict.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., echoed the need for further change.

I hope this trials conclusion brings some level of healing and solace to George Floyds loved ones, as we continue working toward a future in which all Americans have equal protection under the law, she said.

After George Floyds death in May 2020, Sinema said he should still be alive and that the video of his death was grounds for Chauvins arrest. She said she supported the investigations into Floyd's deathbecause bad police officers make it harder for good police officers to do their jobs safely. Sinemas brother is a Tucson police officer.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., the son of police officers, said in a statement the verdict brought accountability for Floyds murder.

We must continue building a more just system that does not discriminate against any American because of their race, he said.

Last year, he spoke of inequities within the nations criminal justice system and beyond, saying it required independent oversight to stop misconduct and discrimination.

Moments before the verdict was announced, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a former prosecutor, attacked Democrats for voting down a GOP effort to censure Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for her comments in Minnesota over the weekend urging people to get more confrontational if there was no guilty verdict in the case.

The Democrats willingly protect violence against our police officers, Biggs tweeted just ahead of the verdict. Afterward, he tweeted against the Democratic-led Green New Deal.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., had a similar complaint.

She cited Waters words, then added: But today, not a single House Democrat voted to hold Waters accountable for her dangerous words. Shameful.

The partisan attacks seemed to sidestep the issue of Chauvins actions and rekindled the law-and-order message Republicans used against Democrats last year after Floyds death triggered mass protests and scattered looting and violence.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., addressed the verdict more directly by calling for restraint in judging the matter at all, and wanted peace.

One must sit through the trial and hear all of the evidence in order to understand what the jury saw, he said in a statement.I did not, and most people did not.I do pray for peace for the families involved.

Rep. Tom OHalleran, D-Ariz., and a former Chicago detective, acknowledged the legal process and a need to address racism in America.

As a former police officer, I know how important it is that those who have sworn to protect and serve are held to the highest standards, he said in a pair of tweets. Today, Derek Chauvin was held accountable by a jury of his peers. Going forward, we must commit to the important, ongoing work needed to address systemic racism and rebuild broken trust between police and the communities they serve.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., also a former prosecutor, said the decision provided a measure of accountability.

Today, the jury stood with the people and reaffirmed the fact: Black Lives Matter. George Floyds life mattered, she said in a statement. We have to hold our systems accountable, over and over again, and thankfully, that is what the jury did today.

The work to establish long-overdue, permanent, morally-right solutions to police brutality continues. Our justice system is only as strong as those who demand accountability, and change is urgent. Im committed to working with the Biden-Harris Administration and the millions of Americans calling for action. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act must become law and we must commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice for all.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., welcomed the verdict but insisted Congress must take concrete steps to address police practices across the country.

I am grateful that justice was served for George Floyd and his family. But this verdict does not erase the systemic problems that put Black lives at risk every day in America and we, as a people, have more work to do, Stanton said in a pair of tweets. That starts in Congress, where the Senate must do what the House did more than a month ago: pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.Failing to move forward on this bill or allowing it to die by filibuster would be a grave injustice.

Stanton, a former Phoenix mayor, noted the police body-camera videos proved critical in this trial. Today's outcome reinforces how imperative it is that every police officer in America utilize body-worn cameras while on duty."

Stanton introduced a bill to outfit U.S. Capitol Police with such cameras after the deadly Jan. 6 riot and last year sought to require them for police departments to qualify for federal funding.

Rep. Ral Grijalva, D-Ariz., called the verdict an overdue reckoning for police.

After so many miscarriages of justice in the aftermath of senseless police killings, todays guilty verdict was a long-awaited step in the right direction to holding police officers accountable, he said in a statement. Although nothing can bring George Floyd back, I hope this guilty verdict provides some form of comfort to his grieving family.

We must continue to ensure the movement his death inspired lives on in real, long-lasting transformations to policing and reforms to our criminal justice system. I will keep fighting in Congress to make it easier to punish bad police officers and begin the process of dismantling the racist policies that have flourished in police departments across the country. We cannot allow George Floyds death to be in vain.

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., did not immediately release public statements about the verdict or respond to a request for one.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow himon Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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1 verdict, 2 views: Democrats, Republicans have different take on what Derek Chauvin trial means - The Arizona Republic

"Throughout my career in public service I've worked to promote policies that drive our economy forward, get folks to work, and put our country's fiscal house in order," Stivers said in his statement. "That is why I am looking forward to this new opportunity with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, where I can continue my efforts to support free enterprise and economic growth here in Ohio."

Stivers' exit is notable given how small Democrats' margin is for control of the chamber following losses in the 2020 elections that saw Republicans make significant gains by flipping seats. His acceptance of a new position also likely takes Stivers out of another highly contested campaign -- this one for US Senate seat in his home state.

Currently the House balance is 218 Democrats and 212 Republicans with five vacancies. With Stivers leaving, Republicans would have 211. A date for a special election to fill the seat has yet to be determined, a decision left to Ohio's GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

While Stivers is the first Republican House member to announce he's resigning from office in the near future, five others have said they'll be leaving the House at the end of the term, including two who are seeking higher offices. Three Democrats have already resigned from the House to join the Biden administration, and three others have said they won't run again in 2022.

The state's 15th congressional district, which includes parts of Columbus and its suburbs, as well as more rural areas, has a distinctive Republican bent. Former President Donald Trump won 56.3% in the district in 2020, improving a bit from 2016. Stivers outperformed Trump with 63% last November in the district.

First elected in 2010, Stivers serves on the Financial Services Committee. He also chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, during the 2018 election cycle, when his party lost 40 seats.

Before joining Congress, Stivers served in the Ohio state senate. He's also a member of the Ohio Army National Guard and earned a Bronze Star for his service during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Djibouti.

This story has been updated with additional developments Monday.

CNN's Alex Rogers, Ethan Cohen and Adam Levy contributed to this report.

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Ohio GOP lawmaker to resign giving Republicans one fewer vote in the House - CNN

American democracy faces many challenges: New limits on voting rights. The corrosive effect of misinformation. The rise of domestic terrorism. Foreign interference in elections. Efforts to subvert the peaceful transition of power. And making matters worse on all of these issues is a fundamental truth: The two political parties see the other as an enemy.

Its an outlook that makes compromise impossible and encourages elected officials to violate norms in pursuit of an agenda or an electoral victory. It turns debates over changing voting laws into existential showdowns. And it undermines the willingness of the loser to accept defeat an essential requirement of a democracy.

This threat to democracy has a name: sectarianism. Its not a term usually used in discussions about American politics. Its better known in the context of religious sectarianism like the hostility between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq. Yet a growing number of eminent political scientists contend that political sectarianism is on the rise in America.

That contention helps make sense of a lot of whats been going on in American politics in recent years, including Donald J. Trumps successful presidential bid, President Bidens tortured effort to reconcile his inaugural call for unity with his partisan legislative agenda, and the plan by far-right House members to create a congressional group that would push some views associated with white supremacy. Most of all, it re-centers the threat to American democracy on the dangers of a hostile and divided citizenry.

In recent years, many analysts and commentators have told a now-familiar story of how democracies die at the hands of authoritarianism: A demagogic populist exploits dissatisfaction with the prevailing liberal order, wins power through legitimate means, and usurps constitutional power to cement his or her own rule. Its the story of Putins Russia, Chavezs Venezuela and even Hitlers Germany.

Sectarianism, in turn, instantly evokes an additional set of very different cautionary tales: Ireland, the Middle East and South Asia, regions where religious sectarianism led to dysfunctional government, violence, insurgency, civil war and even disunion or partition.

These arent always stories of authoritarian takeover, though sectarianism can yield that outcome as well. As often, its the story of a minority that cant accept being ruled by its enemy.

In many ways, thats the story playing out in America today.

Whether religious or political, sectarianism is about two hostile identity groups who not only clash over policy and ideology, but see the other side as alien and immoral. Its the antagonistic feelings between the groups, more than differences over ideas, that drive sectarian conflict.

Any casual observer of American politics would agree that theres plenty of hostility between Democrats and Republicans. Many dont just disagree, they dislike each other. They hold discriminatory attitudes in job hiring as they do on the Implicit Association Test. They tell pollsters they wouldnt want their child to marry an opposing partisan. In a paper published in Science in October by 16 prominent political scientists, the authors argue that by some measures the hatred between the two parties exceeds longstanding antipathies around race and religion.

More than half of Republicans and more than 40 percent of Democrats tend to think of the other party as enemies, rather than political opponents, according to a CBS News poll conducted in January. A majority of Americans said that other Americans were the greatest threat to America.

On one level, partisan animosity just reflects the persistent differences between the two parties over policy issues. Over the past two decades, they have fought bruising battles over the Iraq war, gun rights, health care, taxes and more. Perhaps hard feelings wouldnt necessarily be sectarian in nature.

But the two parties have not only become more ideologically polarized they have simultaneously sorted along racial, religious, educational, generational and geographic lines. Partisanship has become a mega-identity, in the words of the political scientist Lilliana Mason, representing both a division over policy and a broader clash between white, Christian conservatives and a liberal, multiracial, secular elite.

And as mass sectarianism has grown in America, some of the loudest partisan voices in Congress or on Fox News, Twitter, MSNBC and other platforms have determined that its in their interest to lean into cultural warfare and inflammatory rhetoric to energize their side against the other.

The conservative outrage over the purported canceling of Dr. Seuss is a telling marker of how intergroup conflict has supplanted old-fashioned policy debate. Culture war politics used to be synonymous with a fight over social issues, like abortion or gun policy, where government played a central role. The Dr. Seuss controversy had no policy implications. What was at stake was the security of one sect, which saw itself as under attack by the other. Its the kind of issue that would arouse passions in an era of sectarianism.

A Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted in March found that Republicans had heard more about the Dr. Seuss issue than they had heard about the $1.9 trillion stimulus package. A decade earlier, a far smaller stimulus package helped launch the Tea Party movement.

The Dr. Seuss episode is hardly the only example of Republicans de-emphasizing policy goals in favor of stoking sectarianism. Last month, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, penned an op-ed in support of unionization at Amazon as retribution for the Seattle companys cultural liberalism. At its 2020 national convention, the Republican Party didnt even update its policy platform.

And perhaps most significant, Republicans made the choice in 2016 to abandon laissez-faire economics and neoconservative foreign policy and embrace sectarianism all at once and in one package: Donald J. Trump. The G.O.P. primaries that year were a referendum on whether it was easier to appeal to conservatives with conservative policy or by stoking sectarian animosity. Sectarianism won.

Sectarianism has been so powerful among Republicans in part because they believe theyre at risk of being consigned to minority status. The party has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, and conservatives fear that demographic changes promise to further erode their support. And while defeat is part of the game in democracy, it is a lot harder to accept in a sectarian society.

It is not easy to accept being ruled by a hostile, alien rival. It can make political losses feel like existential threats, as the authors of the study published in Science put it.

As a result, the minority often poses a challenge to democracy in a sectarian society. Its the minority who bears the costs, whether material or psychological, of accepting majority rule in a democracy. In the extreme, rule by a hostile, alien group might not feel much different than being subjugated by another nation.

Democracies in sectarian societies often create institutional arrangements to protect the minority, like minority or group rights, power-sharing agreements, devolution or home rule. Otherwise, the most alienated segments of the minority might resort to violence and insurgency in hopes of achieving independence.

Republicans are not consigned to permanent minority status like the typical sectarian minority, of course. The Irish had no chance to become the majority in the United Kingdom. Neither did the Muslims of the British Raj or the Sunnis in Iraq today. Democrats just went from the minority to the majority in all three branches of elected government in four years; Republicans could do the same.

But changes in the racial and cultural makeup of the country leave conservatives feeling far more vulnerable than Republican electoral competitiveness alone would suggest. Demographic projections suggest that non-Hispanic whites will become a minority sometime in the middle of the century. People with a four-year college degree could become a majority of voters even sooner. Religiosity is declining.

The sense that the country is changing heightens Republican concerns. In recent days, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson embraced the conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party was trying to replace the current electorate with new voters from the third world. Far-right extremists in the House are looking to create an America First Caucus that calls for common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions and an infrastructure that befits the progeny of European architecture.

It is not easy to pin down where political sectarianism in America fits on a scale from zero to The Troubles. But nearly every protection that sectarian minorities pursue is either supported or under consideration by some element of the American right.

That includes the more ominous steps. In December, Rush Limbaugh said he thought conservatives were trending toward secession, as there cannot be a peaceful coexistence between liberals and conservatives. One-third of Republicans say they would support secession in a recent poll, along with one-fifth of Democrats.

One-third of Americans believe that violence could be justified to achieve political objectives. In a survey conducted in January, a majority of Republican voters agreed with the statement that the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it. The violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 suggests that the risks of sustained political violence or even insurgency cant be discounted.

Whatever risk of imminent and widespread violence might have existed in January appears to have passed for now.

Instead, Joe Biden was sworn in as president a person who did not attempt to arouse the passions of one sect against the other during his campaign. His nomination and election demonstrates that sectarianism, while on the rise, may still have limits in America: The median voter prefers bipartisanship and a de-escalation of political conflict, creating an incentive to run nonsectarian campaigns.

Yet whether Mr. Bidens presidency will de-escalate sectarian tensions is an open question.

Mr. Biden is pursuing an ambitious policy agenda, which may eventually refocus partisan debate on the issues or just further alienate one side on matters like immigration or the filibuster. Still, the authors of the Science paper write that emphasis on political ideas rather than political adversaries would quite likely be a major step in the right direction.

And Mr. Biden himself does not seem to elicit much outrage from the conservative news media or rank-and-file perhaps because of his welcoming message or his identity as a 78-year-old white man from Scranton, Pa.

But sectarianism is not just about the conduct of the leader of a party its about the conflict between two groups. Nearly anyones conduct can worsen hostility between the two sides, even if it is not endorsed by the leadership of a national political party. Mr. Carlson and the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene are only the latest examples.

It leaves America at an uncertain juncture. Mr. Biden may dampen sectarian tensions compared with Mr. Trump, but it is not clear whether festering grievances and resentments will fade into the background with so many others acting to stoke division.

Sectarianism, after all, can last for decades or even centuries after the initial cause for hostility has passed.

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How Democracy Faces a Rising Threat Splitting Republicans and Democrats - The New York Times

They argue that Republicans are targeting transgender youth now as a way to score political points with a segment of their base at a time when the party is out of power at the federal level and squabbling over some of the fundamental policies that used to unite them from fiscal conservatism to cozying up to big business.

When you have nothing to say, when you have no case, what you do is you throw everything at the wall, said US Representative Marie Newman, a Democrat from Illinois who is also an advocate for LGBTQ issues. You throw all the spaghetti at the wall and you see what sticks.

More than 30 states are considering legislation that limits transgender rights, with many of those bills focusing on barring transgender children from participating in school sports or on restricting the medical care they can receive.

The onslaught of legislation is new in its focus on children, and in its volume.

We have seen more bills introduced just since January in state legislatures across the states attacking transgender youth than weve seen in the previous five years before, said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU in Massachusetts.

The proponents often frame the bills as civil rights legislation protecting women, arguing that transgender girls will have an unfair advantage in girls sports.

Over 30 states have considered or passed civil rights legislation to protect female athletes and thats just one among other important goals states have pursued, Meridian Baldacci, a spokeswoman at the Family Policy Alliance, a conservative Christian organization that is pushing for the legislation, said in a statement.

But activists cite several reasons they suspect that these bills are more about firing up the GOP base with culture war issues than addressing an actual policy problem in their states.

Most of the sponsors of the legislation targeting transgender children in sports could not name any examples where a transgender student athlete was competing in their state or region when asked to do so by the Associated Press. The bills, which their proponents are framing as about womens rights, are also not accompanied by broader support for womens sports or other womens issues.

Theyre not introducing bills that support funding for womens sports in their states, pointed out Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-LGBTQ organization. Theyre not introducing bills that champion pay equity for women.

The bills also come during a time of transition for the Republican Party nationally, as it struggles to define itself after Donald Trumps election loss. The former president shattered the partys consensus on economic issues by embracing more government spending and taking populist positions on trade, while uniting Republicans through fierce fights with liberals and by targeting immigrants. Those culture war issues papered over the cracks in the coalition.

They didnt even have a platform, Rose pointed out, referencing the Republicans decision to not try to write a party platform in 2020. The party instead released a document saying their platform was Trumps America First agenda.

In recent months, as President Biden passed a COVID relief bill and now turns to infrastructure legislation, both measures that poll well among conservatives, Republicans have sought to divert attention by raising concerns about cancel culture and censorship as they attempt to claw back power in the midterms. (Cancel culture generally refers to efforts, often online, to ostracize someone for expressing views that are deemed offensive.)

Representative Jim Banks, the chair of the House Republican Study Committee, argued in a recent memo that Republicans should make fighting wokeness a core campaign message. (Wokeness can refer to anything from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement to Dr. Seuss own estate pulling some of his books that contained racist imagery.) Banks also included under the wokeness umbrella legislation protecting LGBT people from discrimination, arguing that efforts to redefine sex are unpopular among Latino and Black voters.

Thats a message that Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia appeared to hear loud and clear. After her House office building neighbor, Representative Newman, hung a pink and blue transgender pride flag outside her door, Greene posted a sign outside her own office in retaliation. There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE . . . Trust The Science! it read. (Newmans daughter is transgender.)

Newman said she hopes to invalidate the state bills by passing federal legislation that ensures transgender rights. We need to put together legislation that makes these state bills completely moot, she said.

Congress, which is narrowly under Democratic control, is not considering any bills similar to those targeting transgender people that are being debated on the state level, and LGBTQ rights advocates have scored some key victories at the federal level recently.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that federal civil rights laws that protect individuals from being discriminated against on the basis of their sex in the workplace also protect transgender people. (A Trump nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the opinion.) And Biden reversed Trumps executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military and appointed the first transgender American to be confirmed to an administration position by the Senate.

Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director of the LGBTQ legal organization Lambda Legal, said the coalition of groups that are pushing for these laws were also often the drivers of past attempts to ban same-sex marriage.

As it became more obvious in opinion research that the general public was no longer worried about married same-sex couples we just werent scary anymore showing up at the PTA, shopping for groceries the attention shifted to transgender people, Pizer said. It was chosen as a political tool to be used in the same way same-sex couples had been used.

While some polls show more Americans are skeptical of transgender rights than of gay rights, it still doesnt appear that targeting transgender people is a winning political issue. A new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found that roughly two-thirds of Americans say they oppose bills limiting transgender rights, including a majority of people who identify as conservative. More than half of Americans say they personally know a transgender person up from less than one-third of people who said the same five years ago.

Bills targeting transgender people are not new. In 2015 there was a wave of bathroom bills that were mainly aimed at excluding transgender women from using womens restrooms. Bills that make it difficult to obtain a new ID with the correct gender on it after transitioning also proliferated. But the focus on children gives this push a different feel with different consequences.

Being one of the most high profile social issues of the day is not one any high schooler wants, said Casey Pick, a senior fellow at the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention. It is showing up in what were hearing from our LGBTQ youth on our crisis hotlines.

Liz Goodwin can be reached at elizabeth.goodwin@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizcgoodwin.

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Republicans, out of power and squabbling, are targeting transgender kids to score political points, activists say - The Boston Globe

Georgia Secretary of StateBrad Raffensperger doesnt regret standing up to former President Donald Trumps challenges to the 2020 election.

But dont ask the bespectacled 65-year-old formercivil engineer to give out a list of state Republicans he counts as friendsas he gears up for reelection next year against a Trump-endorsed primary opponent.

I wouldnt out them right now," Raffensperger told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview, "but we have lots of friends who are reasonable and rationale Ronald Reagan-type Republicans."

Raffensperger'shesitancy to name his closest allies shouldn't besurprising; he knows better than most about what getting on Trump's bad side can bring.

As recently as last week, the former president targeted Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp as "RINOs" Republicans in Name Only. Around the same time as Trump's latest missive, Raffensperger noted his wife receiveda new round of death threats via text message.

For Republicans trying to unite the state party after a round of Democratic victories in the presidential election and two pivotal Senate runoffs, a civil war against top state GOP leaders, led byTrump and his supporters,is seen as an unnecessarydistraction.Many party officials would rather spend time rallying against Democratic opponents ofa new election law, which has again thrust Georgia into an unflattering national spotlight.

President Trump pressures Ga. Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger on voter fraud in the state

In a recorded phone call, President Trump is heard pressuring Ga. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' votes to reverse his loss.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

But among conservativesbrought to politics and activismbyTrumps fiery populism, the belief is that a party purge is needed.

Tyler Johnson, autility line workerwho voted for Trump in 2020, said the former presidents dispatches are a welcomed push to the right.

"He'sstill involved and he's still fighting," said Johnson,chairman of the Lee County Republican Party. "And that's something I believe has been missing from the Republican Party."

Whether it's banning transgender students from participating in high school sports or establishing a "religious liberty" law,current Republican officeholders makepromises that are rarely kept, Johnson said. And inthe wake of a backlash against the election law which Trumped branded "too weak" but critics have called"Jim Crow 2.0" grassroots conservatives feel theyvecompromised enough.

"A lot of times when (controversial)things happen, it just always seems like Republicans backed away," Johnson said.

As Georgia Republicans look to mend their fractures after Trump's election loss and his assault on the state's elected officials,theintraparty power struggle will serveas a roadmapfor how the national partynavigates Trump's magnetic persona.

"As a Georgia Republican, I do feel we have many strengths that we're bringing to the table, but wehave a little bit of healing to do and wehave to take a look at our party and where we're going in the future," said Marci McCarthy, a Georgia businesswoman and Republican activist.

Raffensperger's race is one of the earliest tests for how Republican candidates and voters will maneuver a post-Trump worldas the former president continues to use hisFlorida-based Mar-a-Lago resort for fundraising and settling personal scores against Republican leaders.

Some state Republicans are nervous, pointing to Southern states that were once long-held GOP strongholds and are now considered more competitive because of Trumps drag on the party. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed 50% of Americans have a less favorable opinion of the Republican Party compared with a year ago.

Republican John Cowan, a self-described constitutional Christian conservative neurosurgeon who lives in northern Georgia, said the continued obsession some voters have with the former president has gone too far.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on, Nov. 11, 2020, in Atlanta.Brynn Anderson, AP

Until we had President Trump, I never really saw the conservative movement making an idol out of the party leader where it was a fealty more than a loyalty, he said.

Cowan, who lost a primaryrace against now-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Republicans such as Raffensperger should be praised, rather than run out of the party, for sticking to the rule of law.

Republicans like himself still have great respect for Trump, but Cowan added conservatives like himhave to be akeel for the ship in 2022 to keep the GOP from tippingover and further alienating moderate voters in Georgia's suburbs a crucial constituency in Democrats' recent statewide victories.

Trump was a dynamic leader, and after eight years of (Barack) Obama the party was looking for someone to bring us out of the wilderness, Cowan said. And instead of him being Moses, some people turned him into God, and I think we lost our way a little.

But University ofGeorgiapolitical science professor Charles Bullock said Republicans who don't hold Trump's worldview will have a difficult time. The university's statewide polling in Januaryshowed about three-fourths of Republicans believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, Bullock said, while noting a number of primary contenders more closely aligned with Trump's brand of politics have emerged and will bevying for multiple state government offices.

"Right now it looks like come summer of 2022 we'll have a range of candidates pledged to Trump running, and that can create a huge rift in the Republican Party," Bullock said. "That could ultimately unfold in November to benefit the Democrats. For instance,we seewhite college-educated voters going for Republicans, but at a much lower rate in each election since 2016."

Charles Bullock, University of Georgia professorUniversity of Georgia

Republicans therefore will face tougher choices in primary battles often along the fault lineof whether to dig deeper into right-wing populism that excites a largely white, working-class base or choose policies that appeal to the states changing demographics.

So far theyve doubled down on the populism, Bullock said.

National observers have repeatedly called attention totheincreased diversification of the Souths population, which makes statewide races inGeorgiamore competitive .

Trump allies don't think that automatically puts them at a disadvantage, however, and they say Trumps populist appeal broke through four years of him being branded as a racist. Voting data showed Trump improved his supportin 78 of the countrys top 100 majority-Hispanic counties from 2016 to 2020.

Theres a potential, if the Republican Party changes its attitude about immigrants, (it) can make some headway with that group, Bullock said. If so that would rebalance the power towards their direction.

Political activist McCarthy, believed by many to be in lineto take over the DeKalb County Republican Party,told USA TODAY that Georgias conservative movement has to reevaluate itself.

"I really want to say Republicans are not white supremacists, and that notion is a really horrible stereotype," she said.

McCarthy,president and CEO of T.E.N., an Atlanta-basedcybersecurity firm, said that includes being a more inclusive party that canbring forth new voters across racial lines. But whatever differences state party leaders and activists have, one thing that won't change ishowTrump,who is still the subject of investigation into allegations of improper election interference byFulton County prosecutors, remainsan important figure.

McCarthy said reconciliationwithin thestate GOP should begin withsticking upfor the new election law,which she and others organized to get passed,rather than where voters, officialsor candidates stand onTrump.

"We turned anger into action and advocacy, and we made a difference with the passing of the election integrity bill, which is 100% being misunderstood,"she said.

McCarthy noted that fact-checkers dingedPresidentJoe Biden for falsely stating Georgia's Republican-controlled legislature ended "voting hours early so working people cant cast their vote after their shift is over."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp holds a news conference in Atlanta after Major League Baseball's pulled the 2021 All-Star Game from the city over objections to a new state voting law.The Associated Press

Under the new law, Peach State counties are now allowedto extend voting hoursas early as 7 a.m. and as late as 7 p.m.

"The misinformation being spread about the law is astounding," she said.

Kemp, also a frequent targetof Trump, has been heeding McCarthy's advice by defending the law in national media interviews but also to rural voters in stops across southern Georgia, according to GOP activists.

"The state is really rallying behind Brian as far as his stance on the law," saidRepublican Tracy Taylor, a Dougherty County firefighter, who considers the governor a mentor.

Several Georgia Republicans acknowledge that the election law representsKemp's last hopeto mend fenceswith a base fiercely loyal to Trump.

I want to be clear: I will not be backing down from this fight, Kemp said in a news conference April 3. "We will not be intimidated, and we will also not be silenced."

Taylor noted the governor is taking his message directly to voters that boycotts against the state, including Major League Baseball's decision to move its All-Star Game,will hurt minority-owned businesses most. He said the attacks from Trump may havemade many leery of Kemp, but the election law fallout has awakened conservatives to the threat ofDemocrat Stacey Abrams running for governor again in 2022.

"I've never seen a governor down here in rural Georgie as active as Brian making the case this way," Taylorsaid. "It's very much what we need. He's not easy to rattle, so youdon't seehim bickering with every Trump comment,and those voters are really warming back up to the governor."

Raffenspergerhas also praised parts of the election law, such as expanding the number ofearly voting days and requiring a voter ID to obtain an absentee ballot, an idea he supported during the 2018 campaign.

In a recent op-ed, Gabriel Sterling, chief financial officer in the secretary of state's office, joined the chorus of Georgia Republicans bycalling out Biden. He said the president's comments about the law are "dangerous hyperbole" no different fromTrump's rhetoric.

"While this isnt necessarily how Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, or I, would have written this law, it is not what President Biden claims," Sterling wrote."We saw just three months ago how election disinformation such as this can lead to violence. It was wrong then, and its wrong now."

Ann White demonstrates at the Georgia State Capitol building after lawmakers passed an overhaul of state election laws.Alyssa Pointer, AP

Republican activists, however, noted Raffensperger has sharply criticized other parts of the law in contrast to Kemp's full-throated defense.

He chastisedGeorgia lawmakers forstripping the secretary of state of his role overseeing state election boards; forbidding food and water to be given to voters a certain distance from the polls;and an effort to block Sunday voting thateventually was taken out of the final version of the bill.

"You don't get any credit when you're going to dosomething bad and then all of a sudden you go back to where it was," Raffensperger told USA TODAY. "From that standpoint, it was just not politically wise what they did there."

Raffensperger also broke with the party line on the boycotts against the state, and he tookGeorgia legislators to task when asked about the MLB yanking its 2021 All-Star Game out of the state, saying they should have done a better job smoothing things over with corporate leaders and sports leagues before the bill passed.

"I would have thought the General Assembly, particularly (Speaker of the House David Ralston), would have had more conversations with these corporations to really hear them and explain what you're doing and what you're not doing," he said.

Johnson, the Lee County GOP chairman, said conservative activistsin his part of the state, along thesouthern border close to the Florida Panhandle, notice the difference. He said that while many stillresentKemp for failing to back Trump on his election challenges last fall, those south Georgianvoters appreciate howthe governor is using his time to standup to national brands andmedia outlets over the election law.

"There is kind of a renewed rally going on at the state party level and down here at the grassroots level," Johnson said. "There's a lot of support for Kemp, and that'sbecause webelieve Stacey Abrams is going to run for governor again, and we've got to pretty much bet on the horse we have in the race already and the guy we've been behind for the last four years."

Raffensperger, however,hasno chance at redemption or winning,he said.

"I can't find you100 people who would vote for him at this point," Johnson said.

Link:
'A little bit of healing to do': Georgia Republicans look to mend after months of division - USA TODAY