May 22 (Reuters) – There may be no politician Donald Trump wants to see ousted more than Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who defied the then president’s demand to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 US presidential election. that narrowly helped Joe Biden win the victory. White House.
Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates in this year’s US congressional elections, seeking to deepen his mark on the Republican Party and remove any adversaries from its ranks.
But Kemp appears poised to give Trump his biggest midterm election rebuke yet in Tuesday’s Georgia primary for a Republican gubernatorial candidate. The governor has commanded a huge lead in polling and fundraising over Trump’s hand-picked Republican challenger, former US Sen. David Perdue.
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Opinion polls show Kemp well above the 50% threshold required to win the nomination outright, avoiding a June runoff, with Perdue far behind.
Kemp’s success to date, despite a constant flurry of insults from Trump, provides a potential roadmap for other Republicans eager to overcome the former president’s divisive obsession with the outcome of the 2020 election without alienating his voter base, which is still substantial.
“I don’t know if there is any politician in America who has been harangued by the former president like Brian Kemp,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime Republican strategist. “Hopefully his victory will make Republicans stand back and say: I don’t need to be so scared.”
Since splitting with Trump, Kemp has struck a careful balance when it comes to electoral integrity, which has become an encouraging issue for Republicans in the wake of Trump’s false claims that voter fraud cost him the election. .
While he refused to entertain Trump’s conspiracy theories, Kemp helped enact one of the country’s most sweeping election restrictions four months after the 2020 election.
“Established Republican politicians don’t necessarily need to listen to (Trump) all the time,” said Audra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “Donald Trump is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, even in a party where he has a lot of influence.”
As he raced toward the finish line, Kemp garnered support from other Republicans who have been targets of Trump’s wrath and perhaps see an opportunity for revenge.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who broke with Trump over the former president’s effort to block Biden’s election certification, will appear alongside Kemp at an election eve rally on Monday. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have also campaigned with Kemp in recent weeks.
‘TRUMPISM IS NOT GOING TO DIE’
Kemp has embraced other key Republican priorities, signing bills limiting abortions and expanding gun rights as he reopened the state at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Republican strategists say Kemp’s emphasis on the issues that excite Trump voters, without embracing the former president in person, could be a lesson to other Republicans fearful of Trump’s wrath.
“Trumpism is not going to die, but Trump’s influence is going to wane,” said Douglas Heye, a Republican consultant.
The race shows that putting Trump’s grievances about the 2020 election at the center of a campaign, as Perdue has done, is not enough on its own to prevail, even in a Republican primary.
“Elections are about the future, not the past,” Tanenblatt said.
Kemp has also mostly refused to engage in a war of words with Trump, even as the former president has showered him with attacks for months.
On the campaign trail, Kemp avoids mentioning Trump’s name, instead touting his own record and attacking presumptive Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
“He never went after Trump on this whole election thing,” said Jay Williams, a Georgia-based Republican strategist. “He has stayed focused on his race and not focused on Trump.”
Not all Republicans enjoy the advantages that Kemp has as the incumbent governor with a legislative majority. He has also benefited from Perdue’s weakness as a candidate, analysts said.
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Reporting by Joseph Axe; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Edited by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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