On Wednesday night, the Atlanta chapter of the Young Republicans held a panel discussion on the presumptive GOP nominee and his affect on the GOP. Titled “Will Trump heal, or destroy, the GOP?”, the panel of three consisted of Bruce Levell, a long-time GOP activist and official from Gwinnett County and now the executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, Kyle Wingfield, the conservative opinion columnist for the AJC and a likely Republican voter waiting to be convinced by Trump, and Linda Beggs, a professional facilitator and GOP activist, graduate of the Coverdell Leadership Institute and a fervent member of #NeverTrump.
Overall, there was perhaps a surprising lack of fireworks. The crowd seemed supportive of Trump in general. If there were significant opposition to Trump, besides Beggs, it remained mostly quiet. Good rounds of applause were heard for Trump’s Georgia Deputy Director. AYR President Angelyn Dionysatos led the discussion and Q&A. Levell was asked what attracted him to Trump in the first place. In his response, Levell focused on Trump’s authenticity and his transparency. He did say he was a little biased because he knows Trump on a personal level. Levell pointed out that a lot of Trump supporters were significantly affected by the recession and Trump is not beholden to any special interest group or lobbyist that may have skated through the recession.
Beggs was asked if, as a public #NeverTrump, do you think you can be a Republican and not support the nominee for president? Her answer? “Sure I can.” She recalled Democrat Zell Miller coming out to support George W. Bush against John Kerry in 2004. Beggs cited her belief in Republican principles of free enterprise, individual liberty and small limited government. Beggs asked the crowd, “how many of you have donated to Hillary Clinton?” No hands went up. “How many of you have only voted in one Republican primary?” No hands went up again. Beggs pointed out that Donald Trump has done both of those things. She pointed out his accusation that George W. Bush lied to get us into the Iraq War.
Wingfield, per his specialty, was asked about how the media may have affected the race. He pointed out the overwhelming number of free or earned media Trump got. For example, in the month of August alone, Trump got more earned media than all the other candidates during the entire campaign, except for Ted Cruz who eventually hit that number by Super Tuesday. “I dont know how anyone in the field could have been expected to overcome that kind of lack of balance,” said Wingfield. Wingfield was unsure whether that kind of exposure would continue to help Trump as the polls haven’t been going his way lately. Wingfield pointed out this may be the difference between running in a crowded primary field versus a general election with much more interest and voters paying attention.
Levell stressed multiple times his conviction that Trump has been able to reach out to a more diverse group of voters. According to Levell, the leadership of the Trump campaign is working hard to resurrect and bring in new voters to the GOP. Perhaps not surprisingly, Beggs was skeptical of their success
