To some at Georgia’s Republican Convention, Donald Trump was simply the “Republican presidential nominee” or the man at the “top of the ticket,” his name going notably unmentioned in both fiery speeches and quiet conversations.
To others, his name was enthusiastically invoked as the bulwark against another four years of Democratic control of the White House, an unstoppable political force who can upend the Washington status quo.
Two distinct blocs of Republicans dominated the two-day conclave in Augusta, and they reached a hesitant truce amid repeated calls of unity from party leaders and the grass-roots activists who make up the backbone of the GOP movement.
It didn’t come easy, and there was a last-minute bid by backers of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to send some of his supporters to this summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
And a handful of activists at the convention remained adamantly against Trump, torn over whether to vote for a third party or write-in candidate or bypass the top of the ticket altogether.
Still, the party avoided most of the rancor that has rocked GOP gatherings in other states. Even Gov. Nathan Deal dodged a harsh rebuke by the GOP faithful for his vetoes of high-profile measures earlier this year.
‘He can help us lead’
Trump won Georgia’s March primary with nearly 40 percent of the vote, winning virtually every demographic of Peach State Republicans by a wide margin. But supporters of Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich managed to win a majority of the 42 delegate slots up for grabs at April meetings in hopes of blocking his nomination.
Now many of his loudest critics in Georgia have rallied to his side, dampening the push by anti-Trump forces who wanted to make a play for the remaining 31 delegates up for grabs at this weekend’s meetings. A last-ditch attempt by Cruz supporters to propose their own slate of candidates for the Cleveland convention was soundly defeated.
Many of Trump’s supporters, full-throated or otherwise, gravitated toward common themes. They warned a Hillary Clinton presidency would amount to a third term of Barack Obama’s policies, and that she would fundamentally change the U.S. Supreme Court with the potential of several appointments.
“Whether we had a different choice, it doesn’t matter,” said Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, among the GOP leaders who avoided Trump’s name. “Because some things are more important than our personal feelings. And when it comes to the next Supreme Court justice, it’s not going to be a one-year issue, a two-year issue. It’s going to be decades.”
Then there were his more enthusiastic backers. Midway through his speech before more than 1,000 state delegates, U.S. Sen. David Perdue donned Trump’s signature red cap with a flourish.
“I know an outsider when I see one — someone who is listening to us,” said Perdue, whose anti-establishment message helped him defeat a slate of veteran Republican politicians in 2014. “He’s complaining about the very people we complain about — politicians, bureaucrats, the media. He can win Michigan and Mississippi on the same day. When does that ever happen?”
He added: “He can help us lead again. But he can also help make America great again.”
A slap on the wrist
Deal, a second-term Republican who doesn’t have to face voters again, bucked his party by vetoing a “religious liberty” measure that would have broadened legal protections for opponents of same-sex marriage and “campus carry” legislation that would have legalized firearms on most parts of public college campuses.
Some critics pushed for a resolution that would express the state GOP's disappointment with the vetoes, and some wanted to follow the lead of delegates in Georgia's Third District who endorsed a resolution to "censure" him. Deal bypassed the event altogether, citing a long-standing commitment to host elite high school students in Atlanta.
The resolution approved by the party, though, used tamer language to urge Deal and lawmakers to “get back to the basics of republican principles” by lowering taxes and reducing regulations. It also criticized Republican lawmakers for supporting a package of tax increases and fee hikes that will raise nearly $1 billion a year for infrastructure improvements.
The resolution said the actions give “the appearance that the legislative and executive Republican Party leadership has lost the vision of principled, conservative leadership they promised.”
Brian Robinson, a former Deal aide, called the slight against his former boss hypocritical. Many of the same activists willing to condemn Deal for his vetoes are looking the other way when it comes to Trump, who he said is “with them on 25 percent” of issues.
“Ask them to explain the difference and all they can do is yell ‘Hillary’ and ‘Supreme Court,’” Robinson said. “If we just required a minimal amount of intellectual consistency of ourselves, maybe we could regroup and appreciate what a fantastic job our Republican governor has done.”
A ‘hijacked’ party
Many of the rank-and-file activists at the meeting still struggle with Trump at the top of the ticket. In interviews Saturday, some who supported Cruz or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said they were reluctantly setting aside their misgivings about Trump for the sake of party unity.
“He’ll get my vote, but he was not my first choice,” said Teresa Johnson, a McDuffie County Republican who lurched from Rubio to Cruz to Trump as the race developed. “And I want him to stick to the issues and get off the name-calling.”
Paula Foil, a GOP activist from Barrow County, sounded lukewarm about Trump.
“It took me a while, definitely,” she said of supporting the party’s presumptive nominee. “I can’t say I’m tons excited, but there are some things about him that I agree with.”
And some refused to line up behind the party’s standard-bearer at all. Joey Pettit said he can’t foresee voting for Trump - even if it means a Democrat in the White House.
“He has hijacked the GOP, feeding off frustration and anger,” said Pettit, a Cobb County partisan. “Policy and ideas are being shunned, in the name of returning America to greatness, with no clear or conservative pathway to get to that greatness.”
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