Top Republicans in Georgia are assembling to try and stop former president Donald Trump from interfering in the governor’s race this year.
Allies of Governor Brian Kemp and top state Republicans have recently approached advisers to Trump to see if he can be persuaded to go easy on the incumbent GOP governor, who is currently fighting for reelection.
It’s an informal effort at the moment. It has not yet involved direct communication between Trump and Kemp. It comes as Kemp prepares for a big election battle against the Democrat candidate, Stacey Abrams, who is a star of the progressive side.
Trump once claimed Abrams “might very well be better” than Kemp as a state executive. Allies of both Kemp and Trump have been unable to shake that comment.
Also hard to shake off are Trump’s many verbal assaults against Kemp over the past year. Ever since Kemp refused to overthrow the state’s election results, the governor has not been on Trump’s good side.
Trump failed to run a primary challenger against Kemp in the primary election just a couple of weeks ago. Since then, Trump has peddled wild conspiracy theories that his candidate lost because of mass election fraud, claiming that his endorsement is simply so powerful that it would be impossible for one of his endorsed picks to lose.
The baseless claim made in a statement last week that Kemp won the primary due to “obvious fraud” has only heightened concerns of Republicans across Georgia.
Trump has not yet signaled how he will handle the Georgia governor’s race now that his pick is not one of the candidates. It is expected to be one of the most expensive races this year. Will he forgive Kemp and set aside his criticisms of him, or will he continue to battle against Kemp? Republicans are hoping it’s the former, but Trump is prone to acting on a whim.
Be the first to comment