We received an email in our tipline promoting a website titled “Shepherding The Truth”. Its mission is to supposedly expose Jason Shepherd as the “wolf among sheep.” The blogger wrote in one post,
At the caucuses, Cobb GOP Chairwoman Rose Wing, who also announced her intention to seek a 2nd term, distributed literature which touted about 250,000 calls or something like that. A big number, not a one Jason himself contributed (more on that at a later date), but one Jason said didn’t matter because “…down in Coweta County which is much smarter-smaller-than us (yeah, we caught that too Jason) they did 120,000 calls in one week for Mike Crane’s campaign alone…”
We don’t know if Shepherd indeed said these things, or whether the numbers bandied about are true, but these unverified claims have brought attention to the race.
The blog later points out that Crane was running in a Republican primary and questioned why the Coweta GOP organized a phone bank for a Republican primary candidate.
Cobb County is perhaps the epicenter of Trump backlash against Republicans. The reliably Republican county voted for Hillary over Trump in November and now Trump’s supporters are pinning the blame on the GOP Establishment. Electing Shepherd is their first priority.
We will see how strongly the backlash materializes next month at the Cobb GOP County Convention. Rose Wing, the incumbent chairman, is running against Jason Shepherd, the candidate Trump loyalists are rallying behind. This isn’t Shepherd’s first time to run for a Cobb GOP executive committee position. He was previously defeated by Wing.