Heath Garrett. Image: Ballotopedia

Heath Garrett is an extremely well-connected, Establishment Republican “strategist” in Georgia who officially worked for ‘business-first’ moderate (and sometimes pro-amnesty) Republican Senator Johnny Isakson for twelve years. Garrett is recognized as being an “influencer.”

Garrett is married to an owner – along with her brother – of the the tenth largest newspaper in Georgia, the Marietta Daily Journal.

Heath Garrett’s office address is 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 130, Atlanta, GA, 30339 – Senator Johnny Isakson’s Atlanta office is located at 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 970, Atlanta, GA 30339.

Bio here from Ballotopedia.

A favorite Heath Garrett story:

As I listened to Garrett’s “let’s go easy on illegal immigration…and tone down the ‘rhetoric’…” speech to the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club luncheon in (October?) 2013,  – the last year a repeat of the 1986 immigration amnesty was on the brink of passage, I watched the trusting and attentive crowd literally and collectively gasp when he told them that “we lost California because of the rhetoric.”

While  most of the group nodded in ignorant and innocent agreement, Garrett also put forth a curious concept that “there is no such thing as an Establishment Republican.” According to Heath Garrett, people use that term to jealously describe somebody who has been in the party longer that they have. He advised against usage.

Afterwards, with a small group waiting to greet him and watching us, I asked Garrett if he and Senator Isakson had any plans to educate the unaware that another amnesty would not help the GOP in elections and that the Republicans lost California largely because of demographics and because of massive immigration and because once naturalized, a huge majority of immigrant voters go for the big government, high-tax, “we’ll give you more loot than they will” pandering Democrats. He didn’t like the inquiry but made it clear that, no, the truth on how California was lost for the Republicans to Democrats was to be kept from the faithful.

Fast forward to the next time – February, 2014 – I watched as Garrett spoke to the same women’s club in the same room with pretty much the same attendees. This time the lesson was ‘unity’. And the constantly repeated directive that ‘the Establishment Republicans’ should partner with the Tea Party. So, now there is an Establishment GOP. I have this on audio. I was seated at a table with the Cobb County District Attorney. He watched me record on my iPhone.

The thing is that no one seemed to recall the complete contradiction in the new truth they were being given.

Full disclosure: I while I have never been a member of any political party, I was a member of the CCRWC for two years, but I don’t think I have been back to a meeting since the last time I heard Garrett speak and watched the obedient crowd follow along.

Updated 13 Nov 2020. Corrected typos and added seating description. Adjusted headline. Added link to Cobb AG. Added link to ‘illegal immigration.’

__