A conservative gathering provides a safe space for Republicans who aren’t on board with Trump
ATLANTA– At the Republican National Convention and several meetings since then, former president Donald Trump is greeted as a hero who narrowly escaped murder and is destined to usher in a new American golden age.
A different atmosphere prevailed at a recent conservative conference in Georgia.
There were few, if any, red hats at “The Gathering,” the annual gathering hosted by influential syndicated radio host Erick Erickson, and no rousing promises to “Make America Great Again.” Instead, Erickson’s guests, who ranged from rank-and-file voters to Trump’s former vice president, spent two days criticizing the GOP’s trajectory in the Trump era. And when it came to the November election, many of them spent more time wringing their hands over a Kamala Harris presidency than celebrating the promise of a new Trump administration.
The dynamic is particularly problematic for the former president’s chances in Georgia, a longtime Republican stronghold that has nearly turned into a true two party stateand a handful of other tossup states. They also serve as a reminder that despite Trump’s near-total takeover of the GOP, he still has opponents and skeptics among conservatives whose decisions this fall could help determine whether he returns to the White House.
“I voted for him voluntarily in 2016, and then I held my nose and did it again in 2020,” said Atlanta small business owner Barton McMillan, a 40-year resident who blames Trump for recent Democratic victories in Georgia, supported Joe Biden for president in 2020 and two Democratic US senators elected.
“This time I don’t know what I’m going to do,” McMillan said. “And I’m representative of a lot of the people here.”
Erickson’s rally was marked by outrage over federal spending, abortion policy, Trump’s proposed tariffs, America’s uncertain role in the international order, the former president’s penchant for personal attacks, his fixation on the lie that systematic voter fraud was the cause of his 2020 loss and his false claim that his then-Vice President, Mike Pence, had the power to overturn Biden’s election.
“I cannot accept President Trump’s continued assertion that I should have set aside my oath to support the Constitution and acted in a manner that would have overturned the election,” Pence said.
Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, who recently blown up by Trump for not helping to overturn the 2020 election, received a standing ovation when he was introduced, drew laughter when he compared the former president to a tropical storm, and received even more applause when he called on Republicans to focus on the future.
“We are going to use our political operation to win Georgia, despite past grievances,” Kemp assured Erickson without mentioning Trump by name. Trump is accused for his attempts to overturn the 2020 results in Georgia and elsewhere. These cases are still pending.
In his criticism, Pence pointed to the Republican 2024 platform’s failure to call for a national ban on abortion for the first time in decades and to address the country’s ballooning national debt, which has ballooned during Trump’s four years. Pence lamented an increasingly isolationist and protectionist stance among the GOP base — opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s invading Russian forces and Trump’s promise of sweeping tariffs in a second term.
The Republican Party, Pence said, is in the grip of “populism divorced from conservative principles.”
Walter Michaelis, a 22-year-old preparing to cast his second vote for president, stood and cheered the former vice president, saying afterward that Trump’s “America First” approach could go too far, especially on tariffs and trade.
“I understand why Trump was needed in 2016,” Michaelis said. “But sometimes I think it would be better for the party to move on.”
Michaelis, who voted for Trump in 2020, said he would not support Harris, but he had not decided whether he would vote for the former president again.
Kent Kim, a 30-year-old from Alpharetta, said he has decided to run for Trump. But he added that he has withheld his vote from Trump before, saying, “I know people who probably will this year.”
A key reason for Trump’s defeat was that he underperformed relative to Republican numbers in the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix suburbs, areas that helped swing Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona to Biden. Those same places could also give Harris a boost in the fall.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quietly acknowledged the risks during his appearance onstage with Erickson as he lamented Republicans’ recent losses in winnable Senate races. He said that included Georgia, where Trump-backed Herschel Walker lost to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022 despite Republicans winning every other statewide race.
McConnell predicted a GOP majority in the Senate in the new Congress, but sounded less confident about the presidency. Despite blaming Trump for the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, he has Trump endorsed for president.
“We all know who we hope the next administration is going to be,” he told Erickson. Still, McConnell outlined a conservative agenda without mentioning the former president, except to support extending “the Trump tax cuts” of 2017.
And, following Pence’s lead, McConnell criticized an unnamed Republican for turning away from the US’s traditional role on the world stage.
“We’ve had isolationist sentiments from time to time,” he said, noting that the 1930s gave rise to the original rallying cry of “America First.” “That stopped after Pearl Harbor,” McConnell said, only to have some American conservatives oppose the creation of NATO and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.
McConnell warned that the same mistakes risk being made with North Korea, China, Russia and Iran “all talking to each other” as “an axis of powerful regimes.” McConnell said this would require an assertive US international presence and more robust defense spending in all Western democracies.
“If I had a message for the next administration … take this seriously,” McConnell said.
Even some of Trump’s outspoken allies issued subtle warnings.
Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost a runoff election to Democrat Raphael Warnock in January 2021, noted that tens of thousands of Republicans who voted for Trump the previous November stayed home for the runoff after Trump openly questioned the veracity of the vote counts. She emphasized that this time around, Trump is encouraging his base to take advantage of every voting option: by mail, in-person early voting or on Election Day.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is running to succeed McConnell as Senate Republican leader, said in a brief interview that Trump “will be fine.” But when asked whether Trump would face new fights within the party, Scott steered the conversation toward his own success in a series of close gubernatorial and Senate elections.
“I try to make sure ultimately that in my races there is a choice, and it’s a policy choice. … Just talk about the issues,” he said.
Asked if he would give Trump that advice, Scott replied, “Well, I mean, he’s going to run the race he wants to run.”