DALTON, GA – By the time nearly 1,700 Republican delegates were driving away from their annual state convention, a vigorous storm had descended on Dalton, rocking cars, dislodging a glass door at the convention center entry and tearing a flag off one of the poles outside.

Party stalwarts fear another kind of storm could tear at GOP unity as a momentous election year approaches.

But despite some discontent, the delegates voted overwhelmingly to re-elect Josh McKoon as their chairman. Otherwise, nothing earth-shaking happened. A resolution to bar Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from running as a Republican did pass, but McKoon later said it was probably not legally enforceable.

And no one unexpectedly declared their candidacy for the U.S. Senate or for the smorgasbord of other seats

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