Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The Cobb County Republican Party used to be a dominant force in Georgia. But lately it’s an example of the internal fighting that threatens to rip the state and national Republicans apart. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio headlined the first Senate runoff rally at Cobb HQ last November. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel trekked to the chapter a few weeks later to beg voters not to boycott the election. And when Brian Kemp launched his campaign for governor in 2017, he made a beeline to the Cobb GOP to deliver his opening address, a ‘Georgia First’ pitch modeled after Donald Trump’s mantra. Now Trump and Kemp are on the outs over the governor’s refusal to illegally overturn the former president’s defeat. And the pro-Trump faction that’s taken over the Cobb GOP is calling it quits with Kemp, too. The Cobb GOP’s county committee passed a resolution on Thursday censuring Kemp, ostensibly for failing to crack down on illegal immigration, party chair Salleigh Grubbs told the Marietta Daily Journal. ‘So the resolution portion of it says that Gov. Brian Kemp be censured for his failure to keep his campaign promises and meet his obligations to end illegal immigration in the state of Georgia,’ Grubbs said.”

“Never mind that ending illegal immigration is an impossible task for a state governor who has no say over U.S. border policy. Within hours of the censure, former Cobb GOP chair Jason Shepherd stepped down. A few days later, the Cobb Young Republicans also blasted the county organization’s decision to rebuke Kemp. ‘Cobb YRs feel that the decision to censure further divides the party at a critical time,’ the group said in a statement. Shepherd, who unsuccessfully ran for state party chair this year, took issue with both the process of the vote and the concept of censuring a GOP elected official. ‘How does the Cobb GOP work to re-elect Brian Kemp if the voters choose him to be the nominee when it has officially censured him?’ he asked. ‘This censure can now be used as campaign fodder in the primary by Kemp’s opponents.'”