President Trump will be the only candidate to appear on the Georgia Republican presidential primary ticket, the party chairman announced Tuesday.
Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer said the State Executive Committee met to consider a potential list of five candidates submitted for consideration by Nov. 22, as required by law.
The committee unanimously voted to have Trump appear on the ballot, and he is the sole candidate who will appear, Shafer said.
Shafer said Trump was the “only candidate with any significant level of support” among Republican voters in the state who “unambiguously” pledged to support the Republican nominee in 2020, according to a party release.
Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh (R), who is running against Trump for the nomination, hit the party leaders for the decision.
“The Republican Party apparatus has effectively become an instrument of despotism, a cult of personality, calcifying around a cancerous criminal who has done little more than manipulate public office for his own personal gain,” Walsh said in a statement.
“Rather than uphold our values and embrace healthy political debate and discourse, the Georgia Republican Party bosses have chosen to disenfranchise their own voters simply to protect a man who is unfit for office,” he added.
Walsh was among five candidates the Georgia GOP said were submitted for consideration, along with former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Weld also called out the decision, likening it to Russian President Vladmir Putin’s “approach to elections.”
The other two candidates the GOP said submitted information for consideration were President R19 Boddie and Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente.
Other states have similarly blocked a Republican primary election.
The Minnesota Republican Party announced in October that Trump will be the only candidate on the ticket, and Kansas, Alaska, South Carolina, Arizona and Nevada have all canceled their primaries or caucuses, citing unnecessary costs of an election when the overwhelming majority of Republican voters support the incumbent.