A conservative gathering provides a safe space for Republicans who aren’t on board with Trump

ATLANTA (AP) — At the Republican National Convention and multiple rallies since, former President Donald Trump has been greeted as a hero who narrowly escaped assassination and is destined to lead a new American golden age.

At a recent conservative conference in Georgia, there was a different vibe.

There were few, if any, red hats at “The Gathering,” the annual confab hosted by influential syndicated radio host Erick Erickson, and no rousing promises to “Make America Great Again.” Instead, Erickson’s guests, from rank-and-file voters up to Trump’s onetime vice president, spent two days critiquing the GOP’s path in the Trump era. And when it came to the November election, many of them spent more time hand-wringing over a Kamala Harris presidency than celebrating the promise of another Trump administration.

The dynamics are particularly problematic for the former president’s chances in Georgia, a longtime Republican stronghold that has almost shifted into becoming a genuine two-party state, and a handful of other tossup states. They also serve as a reminder that despite his near-complete takeover of the GOP, Trump still has detractors and skeptics among conservatives whose decisions this fall could help determine whether he returns to the White House.

“I voted for him willingly in 2016, and then I held my nose and did it again in 2020,” said Atlanta small business owner Barton McMillan, a four-decade resident of the city who blames Trump for recent Democratic victories in Georgia, which backed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and elected two Democratic U.S. senators.

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“This time, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” McMillan said. “And I’m representative of a lot of the people here.”

Indeed, Erickson’s assembly featured consternation over federal spending, abortion policy, Trump’s proposed tariffs, America’s uncertain role in the international order, the former president’s penchant for personal attacks, his fixation on the lie that systemic voter fraud was to blame for his 2020 loss and his false contention that his vice president at the time, Mike Pence, had the power to overturn Biden’s election.

“I cannot endorse President Trump’s continuing assertion that I should have put aside my oath to support the Constitution and act in a way that would have overturned the election,” Pence said.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who was recently blasted by Trump for not helping overturn the 2020 election, drew a standing ovation when he was introduced, laughter when he compared the former president to a tropical storm and more applause when he called for Republicans to focus on the future.

“We’re going to use our political operation to win Georgia despite past grievances,” Kemp assured Erickson without mentioning Trump by name. Trump has been indicted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 results in Georgia and elsewhere; those cases are pending.

In his criticisms, Pence pointed to the 2024 Republican platform that fails — for the first time in decades — to call for a national abortion ban and sidesteps the mounting national debt, which ballooned during Trump’s four years. Pence bemoaned an increasingly isolationist and protectionist bent among the GOP base — opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s invading Russian forces and Trump’s promise of sweeping tariffs in a second term.

The Republican Party, Pence said, is under a spell of “populism unmoored to conservative principle.”

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Walter Michaelis, a 22-year-old getting ready to cast his second presidential ballot, stood and cheered the former vice president and said afterward that Trump’s “America First” approach can go too far, especially on tariffs and trade.

“I understand why Trump was needed in 2016,” Michaelis said. “But sometimes I do think it would be better now for the party to move on.”

Michaelis, who voted for Trump in 2020, said he would not back Harris but had not yet decided whether to vote for the former president again.

Kent Kim, a 30-year-old from Alpharetta, said he has decided to go with Trump. But he added, he’s withheld his vote from Trump before and said, “I know people who probably will do that this year.”

A key reason for Trump’s defeat was underperforming the usual Republican marks in suburban Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix, areas that helped tilt Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona to Biden. Those same places also could boost Harris in the fall.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during his turn on stage with Erickson, tacitly acknowledged the risks as he lamented recent Republican losses in winnable Senate contests. He said that included Georgia, where Trump-backed Herschel Walker lost to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022 despite Republicans winning every other statewide election.

McConnell predicted a GOP Senate majority in the new Congress but sounded less confident about the presidency. Despite blaming Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, he has endorsed Trump for president.

“We all know who we hope will be the next administration,” he told Erickson. Yet McConnell outlined a conservative agenda without mentioning the former president except to support extending “the Trump tax cuts” of 2017.

And, echoing Pence, McConnell scolded a nameless Republican for turning away from the traditional U.S. role on the world stage.

“We’ve had occasionally these isolationist moods,” he said, noting that the 1930s gave rise to the original “America First” rallying cry. “That stopped after Pearl Harbor,” McConnell said, only for some U.S. conservatives to resist the establishment of NATO and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.

McConnell warned that the same mistakes loom with North Korea, China, Russia and Iran “all talking to each other” as “an axis of powerful regimes.” McConnell said that demands an assertive international U.S. presence and more robust defense spending across Western democracies.

“If I had a message for the next administration ... take this seriously,” McConnell said.

Even some of Trump’s full-throated allies offered subtle warnings.

Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost a January 2021 runoff to Democrat Raphael Warnock, noted that tens of thousands of Republicans who voted for Trump the previous November stayed home for the runoff after Trump openly questioned the veracity of vote counts. She emphasized this time that Trump is encouraging his backers to take advantage of any voting option: mail, in-person early voting or on Election Day.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is running to succeed McConnell as GOP Senate leader, said in a brief interview that Trump is “going to be fine.” But when asked about Trump picking new fights within the party, Scott steered the conversation to his own success in a series of close gubernatorial and Senate contests.

“I try to make sure that, ultimately in my races, that there’s a choice, and it’s a policy choice. ... Just talk about the issues,” he said.

Asked whether he would offer Trump that advice, Scott replied: “Well, I mean, he’s going to run the race he likes to run.”