GOP Chair John Padgett: Donald Trump Can Be a Good Candidate

Georgia Republican Party Chairman John Padgett at the Georgia GOP convention in May 2015. Photo: Jon Richards
Georgia Republican Party Chairman John Padgett at the Georgia GOP convention in May 2015. Photo: Jon Richards
Georgia Republican Party Chairman John Padgett weighed in on Donald Trump, who is the current leader in polls of Georgia Republican primary voters, saying that the billionaire real estate developer isn’t a typical politician who can relate to average Americans because he doesn’t use political speak. Padgett made his remarks on WGAU Radio‘s Newsmakers with Tim Bryant program Friday morning.

With the Georgia presidential primary five weeks from tomorrow, Padgett talked about Trump’s chances, saying, “Do I think that Donald Trump’s got a chance to be our candidate? Yup I do. And do I think that he’ll be a good candidate? Yes I do. And do I think that he can beat whoever the Democrats put up as their candidate? Yes I do.”

Bryant then asked Padgett whether Trump will be a conservative candidate.

I think he’ll be conservative enough that the base of the party will go vote for him, and that’s what you’ve got to have. We watched Obama beat us in the last presidential election with a whole bunch of Republicans sitting on their hands. We came through every kind of primary battle you can have in the last [2014] election, and the Republicans didn’t sit on their hands, and I don’t think Republicans in this country are going to sit on their hands. It’s going to be whoever the Republican candidate is against the Democrat and their ideas, and I don’t think the Republicans are in any mood to be sitting on their hands right now.

Padgett’s term as party chairman runs through May 2017. He is not planning to run for re-election.

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