CAIRO — Republican Congressional candidate Don Cole will be on hand Monday night for the grand opening of the Grady County GOP’s new downtown headquarters.

Grady County Republican Party chair Jeff Jolly said the new party headquarters located at 115 Broad Street has been open for the past week to allow voters to pick up yard signs or other campaign materials, but Monday’s 6 p.m. event will mark the first major activity at the site since the party took ownership of the building.

“We just got it a couple of weeks ago,” Jolly said. “We had to get the electricity turned on and clean it up, that kind of stuff.”

Cole, running for Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, will be present at the event to discuss his plans for what he would do if elected to go to Washington this fall.

“We don’t have a voice up there anymore. Our congressman votes the way that the Speaker tells him to vote,” Jolly said, referring to current District 2 seatholder Sanford Bishop. “We need somebody to represent us.”

Cole is the candidate who can do that, Jolly said.

State Representative Darlene Taylor also will be present for the event, as will other Republican candidates running for local offices.

Party officials are looking forward to a big crowd, and are asking attendees to wear masks. Food will not be served at the event in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus, but bottled drinks will be available.

Previous Grady GOP events have been held in spare rooms at a local church, and Jolly said he doesn’t believe the party has ever held a physical space of its own. Plans to search for a permanent home earlier this year were thrown off when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and party officials instead decided to make a move as soon as primary voting concluded in June.

Party officials looked at other buildings, including one which Jolly said was “unsuitable” due to the number of repairs it would have required. The building eventually chosen to serve as the party’s new headquarters was secured just a few weeks ago.

“This is a good, visible location,” Jolly said. “It’s right downtown.”

The new building is “much larger” than the church classroom the GOP used to occupy, Jolly said. Though the party chair was unsure of how many square feet the new headquarters covers, the building spans three stories.

Currently only the building’s first floor is being used, though Jolly said the upper floors could later be used for additional office space or to host meetings.