“Former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) is seriously considering mounting a Republican primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp (R), which would set up a divisive showdown between two of Georgia’s biggest political figures in the 2022 election,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“In recent weeks, Perdue has called donors and other allies to float the idea… Several of them said he’s ‘conflicted’ about a run, while others say he’s leaning toward a challenge.”
After Donald Trump attacked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) at his rally over the weekend for not helping to subvert the 2020 election, the statewide Georgia Republican candidates endorsed by Trump all declined to defend Kemp, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Donald Trump’s political operation has commissioned a poll showing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is vulnerable in a Republican primary, a move that comes as the former president looks to punish the first-term Republican for his perceived disloyalty during the state’s 2020 vote count,” Politico reports.
“The survey, which was paid for by Trump’s Save America PAC, shows Kemp on shaky political ground among base Republican voters and suggests he would be at risk of losing the nomination to former Sen. David Perdue, a Trump ally who lost reelection earlier this year — but who hasn’t publicly expressed interest in waging a primary challenge to Kemp.
“Even though Stacey Abrams has not announced what her plans are for a 2022 rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp, you get the strong sense that Republicans can’t wait to run against her,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Look no further than Gov. Brian Kemp’s debut reelection campaign ad, which features a shadowy picture of Abrams and blames her specifically for the decision of Major League Baseball to move the All Star game — previously set to be staged in metro Atlanta next week.”
CNN: “In early May at Mar-a-Lago, Trump met with Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones and Jones’ father, a wealthy pro-Trump donor, and said he wanted the younger Jones to run for governor against Brian Kemp in the Republican primary. With the former President’s backing, Jones could knock off the first-term governor, one of Trump’s top political targets.”
“But by the end of the meeting, Jones made it known to Trump he was unsure about taking on Kemp and that he preferred to run for lieutenant governor, according to four people familiar with the meeting.”
“Trump’s failure to recruit Jones would be a blow to the former President’s vendetta against Kemp, the otherwise pro-Trump stalwart who nonetheless refused the Trump’s calls to intervene and overturn his defeat in Georgia. It also highlights the limits to Trump’s power to pick and choose his candidates to ensure the Republican Party remains in his grip through the 2022 midterms and beyond.”
Politico: “Kemp’s standing with the rank-and-file has, improbably, improved, according to interviews with more than 30 party officials, strategists and activists here. And in his partial rehabilitation — the product of a relentless focus on so-called election integrity issues and culture war staples to excite the base — Kemp may serve as a model for dozens of Republicans elsewhere who have incurred Trump’s public wrath and are seeking to regain their standing with Republicans at home.”
“Kemp’s fate looms especially large in Georgia, a swing state where Trump not only was defeated by Joe Biden but saw Republicans lose both U.S. Senate seats in the state’s runoff elections in January. Fearful that Trump’s frequent criticism of Kemp could lead to a damaging primary and depress Republican turnout in a close general election — potentially a rematch with Democrat Stacey Abrams — several Georgia-based Republicans and Republicans with ties to the state have privately appealed to Trump to hold back.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Though U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents on the 2022 ballot, no elite Republican has yet entered the race as the party waits to see whether University of Georgia football great Herschel Walker will jump in.”
“On the Democratic side, Stacey Abrams is expected to mount a rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp to try to avenge her narrow defeat in 2018. But her announcement is not imminent, and until she joins the contest, the nationally watched race won’t start in earnest.”
A day after former President Donald Trump said that Georgia should follow Arizona’s lead, former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones (R), a Trump supporter who is challenging incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in next year’s GOP primary, proposed an audit, CNN reports.
“A former Democratic state legislator who switched parties after he endorsed Donald Trump is set to launch an insurgent challenge Friday against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, setting the stage for a race that will test the former president’s influence in Georgia,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“Vernon Jones aims to tap into GOP anger at Kemp for resisting Trump’s demands to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in November, though his long record as an elected Democratic official seems certain to complicate his bid to win over Republican voters.”
New York Times: “Since signing the bill into law on March 25, Mr. Kemp has done roughly 50 interviews, 14 with Fox News, promoting the new restrictions with messaging that aligns with Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.”
“A political reversal of fortune would represent an unlikely turnaround for Mr. Kemp, making him the most prominent Republican to find a way to overcome Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution, and perhaps providing an early test of the former president’s ability to impose his will on the party’s electoral future.”
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) is not expected to run for re-election.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “It aims to build a national fundraising infrastructure, mobilize conservative supporters, air anti-Abrams ads and promote media narratives targeting the Democrat ahead of her expected campaign against Kemp.”
“President Trump on Wednesday called for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to resign, escalating his criticism of a fellow Republican who has refused to intervene in the state’s presidential election or embrace Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud,” the Washington Post reports.
“Bristling at his defeat in Georgia, President Trump increasingly believes that Gov. Brian Kemp has not done enough to deliver him a victory or challenge the state’s election results. Now, sources close to the president—and Republicans in Georgia—say it is a foregone conclusion that Trump will help stand up a primary challenger to Kemp when the Republican is up for re-election in 2022,” the Daily Beast reports.
Said one Trump adviser: “It’s a fait accompli.”
President Trump, while speaking at a campaign rally to gin up support for Georgia Republican senators on Saturday, floated a potential 2022 gubernatorial run by Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) to challenge Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I want to thank Doug Collins. Thank you, Doug. What a job he does. Doug, you want to run for governor in two years?”
“Stacey Abrams’ political future is the subject of intense speculation after she helped turn Georgia blue for President-elect Joe Biden,” the Daily Beast reports.
“With more work on the horizon, three Democrats with knowledge of the former state house minority leader’s aspirations tell the Daily Beast that they expect her to run for governor in 2022.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Brian Kemp and his aides publicly accused the Democratic Party of Georgia of trying to hack into the voter database in a failed attempt to steal the election. The announcement added last-minute drama to an already contentious campaign. More important, it also pre-empted scrutiny of the secretary of state’s own missteps while initiating a highly unusual criminal investigation into his political rivals.”
“But no evidence supported the allegations against the Democrats at the time, and none has emerged in the six weeks since, the Journal-Constitution found. It appears unlikely that any crime occurred. … That examination suggests Kemp and his aides used his elected office to protect his political campaign from a potentially devastating embarrassment.”
“Stacey Abrams said Monday that she is considering running for a Georgia Senate seat in 2020 or governor again in 2022,” Politico reports.
“Abrams’ drew national attention in her bid to become the first black woman governor in the United States, and the progressive political action committee Democracy for America included her in a presidential poll it opened online last week.”
Rick Hasen: “Democrats should stop with the rhetoric that the race was ‘stolen’… First, rhetoric about stolen elections feeds a growing cycle of mistrust and delegitimization of the election process… Saying Kemp tried to suppress Democratic votes and saying the election was stolen are two different things, and making charges of a stolen election when it cannot be proved undermines Democrats’ complaints about suppressive tactics.”
“Rather than questioning the election’s legitimacy or making uprovable claims of stolen elections, Democrats should focus their efforts into doing whatever is possible to prevent voter suppression and incompetence in the upcoming 2020 elections.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.