- Update: Sen.Larry Walker prevailed in the Primary Election. Tori Branum garnered 23% of the total votes cast. Sen. Shawn Still has not apologized for misrepresenting a record of service in the military. Peach State Values spent $23K to defeat Branum. Walker is rumored to be considering a run for Georgia Secretary of State in 2026. Details here.
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A Republican state Senator back tracks on veteran status, another Republican state Senator and candidate for reelection removes his name from positions on a political PAC just before a former U.S. Marine candidate for the GA Senate office is falsely smeared by the same PAC: Senate District 20.
Georgians who want some insight into some integrity-free political shenanigans involved in state legislative campaigns should consider the GOP Primary race in southern Middle Georgia’s Senate District 20.
Elected in 2015 2014, Senator Larry Walker III (R- Perry) is the incumbent and is quite willing to prove his determination to keep the job. Readers may remember Walker from March when the General Assembly passed one of his anti-enforcement, business-first, “we need more workers!” bills, SB 354. Because it dismantles the existing immigration check involved in occupational licensing for some low skilled jobs in Georgia, this writer worked unsuccessfully to see that measure vetoed.
Larry Walker has a primary opponent in Ms. Tori Branum, a U.S. Marine for eight years with an honorable discharge and who is a now single mother. Two of Branum’s kids are military veterans. A marksmanship instructor when she was on active duty in the Marines, Branum owns and operates ‘Middle Georgia Female Firearms training’ and lives in Dublin, GA.
Branum would make a terrific conservative Republican state senator. She is pro-enforcement on immigration. She says she would not have voted for SB 354.
Dedicated county GOP leaders often urge ordinary citizens to run for office. Apparently that desire does not extend to everyone in the Republican state Senate caucus. At least one Senator, Shawn Still (R – Norcross) spent considerable time on a March 5 phone call with Branum trying to convince her to drop out of the race against his pal Larry Walker.
At one point in that recorded and online-posted conversation, Still tells Branum that her campaign quest is akin to a “Kamikaze run” because Walker runs the GOP senate caucus PAC. Branum explains to Still that “…as an American veteran, I have a right to run for office in my country.” Still quickly shot back with what sounds a lot like a direct order: “Tori, don’t, don’t ever say that to me again. I am too. I’ve served proudly, and you don’t need to throw that in my face.”
Still’s claim to past military service caught my ear because I had already read his short bio on the “about Shawn” page of his ‘shawnstill.com’ campaign website. There, Still informs voters that “he attended the University of Alabama as a swimmer and U. S. Air Force ROTC cadet. Diploma in hand and preparing to attend flight school, the end of the Cold War and the election of President Bill Clinton abruptly cancelled Shawn’s plans along with those of most other would-be second lieutenants in the USAF. As a result, he pursued a variety of civilian careers…”
Unable to imagine how the end of the Cold War in 1989-ish and the election of Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992 could have possibly stopped Shawn Still from becoming an Air Force officer, I asked him for clarification. In his reply he backtracked and explained that he was really never in the military. He is not a veteran. His full response is posted on my blog. As I write, USMC veteran Tori Branum has not received an apology from Republican state Senator Shawn Still.
In 2018, Larry Walker, the District 20 Republican state Senator, registered the Peach State Values Inc. with the GA Secretary of State – it’s a PAC and is known to send scathing, semi-accurate mailers and Facebook ads during the election season aimed at various candidates – including fellow Republicans – for legislative office. From its inception six years ago, Walker was listed as the CEO, COO and Secretary of The Peach State Values Inc. That changed on April 30th, 2024 when an amended annual report was filed with the SoS office that showed a transfer of those corporate positions to another Republican state Senator, Matt Brass of Newnan.
- Bonus education for Facebook users: Middle Georgia Female Firearms training – Tori Branum
At least one of the Peach State Values PAC Facebook campaign ads went out in early May aimed at the Senate District 20 race. It was a smear directed at Tori Branum stating that she has a “criminal record.” She doesn’t. You can see a screen shot of that smear on the Dustin Inman Society website.
Republicans who want to clean out the increasingly odiferous state Senate swamp should be asking why Walker and Brass arranged to replace Walker on the official corporate record at the Secretary of State office.
I asked them both. Walker told me to ask Brass. Brass did not reply.
It could be that it is a violation of campaign finance laws for a PAC to coordinate with a political campaign.
Campaign finance is not this writer’s area of expertise, but the complaint I will file against Walker and Brass for coordinating and strategizing to smear Tori Branum and promote Walkers reelection with their PAC will cite OCGA 21-5-3(15) that I found on page 2, here.
According to Ballotpedia the annual state legislative base salary is $23,341.72 plus a per diem of $247 during the legislative session.
There is more to this story of the merciless attacks from the Larry Walker camp on Tori Branum. Space does not allow me to expand but readers and voters should be asking what drives Larry Walker and his Senate pals to so dishonestly attack an honest, pro-enforcement fellow Republican challenger.
We don’t think it’s the state salary that comes with the office.
