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The 45th President Donald Trump and his former ruling partner Mike Pence held a duel Monday night for their preferred candidates ahead of Georgia’s long-awaited Republican gubernatorial election, which could herald a potential battle for the Republican’s future.
Dramatically breaking up with his former boss, Pence held a stormy rally with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (right) on the eve of the election, which the governor is expected to win. Trump, meanwhile, has appeared on television with the man he is recruiting to oust Kemp, whom he accuses of not working hard enough to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election there: former Senator David Purdue (R).
The former vice president appeared with the governor in a hangar at Keneso Airport, where a black bus with the Kemp logo entered through a large side door and country texts such as “It’s Harvest Time” thundered as the men posed for photos with supporters.
“When you say yes to Brian Kemp tomorrow, you’re going to send a deafening message across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future,” Pence told the crowd.
Pence praised much of the Trump administration’s agenda, and even Kemp praised Trump. None of the men mentioned Perdue by name, and instead focused their anger on likely Democratic candidate for governor, Stacy Abrams, as a sign that the primary election is almost over, according to observers and opinion polls.
Instead, Kemp boasted of reopening Georgia before others during the coronavirus pandemic – against the direction of federal officials – and some of his other moves, such as suspending the state’s gas tax. Pence briefly mentioned the 2020 election, but focused heavily on other topics.
Pence did not answer blatant questions about Trump when he left the event.
Meanwhile, Trump turned to Kemp – and Abrams – at Purdue City Hall.
“David is the only candidate who can beat Stacey Abrams because I don’t believe Kemp can do it. “There are too many people in the Republican Party who will refuse to vote,” Trump said. He attacked Kemp again in the 2020 election. Purdue, meanwhile, said Abrams was “humiliating his own race” and should leave Georgia.
“She said Georgia was the worst place to live in the country. Hey, she ‘s not from here. Let her go back to where she came from. “She doesn’t like it here,” Purdue said.
The symbolism of the split screen was bright between the once honorable vice president and Trump. The two men have not spoken in almost a year, and Trump has criticized Pence for not doing more to overturn the 2020 election results. Meanwhile, Pence has sometimes criticized Trump’s comments for 2020, signaling in private that he may run. in 2024, even against Trump.
If Kemp wins on Tuesday, as expected, it will be a significant setback for Trump, prompting reluctant Purdue to compete against him, political observers say. Fueled by anger at Kemp for not helping him cancel the election, Trump insulted the governor for months, organized political opposition to him and held an earlier rally in Georgia on behalf of Purdue. Trump’s political influence will also be tested in two other contests: the Senate race, where former NFL star Herschel Walker is expected to win the Republican Prize to face Senator Raphael G. Warnock (D); and the race for Secretary of State between Brad Rafensperger and Trump’s chosen representative, Jodie Hayes (R).
The fact that no one has criticized Trump explicitly shows that he still remains the most influential Republican in the country and has considerable power over his party’s base, political strategists said. Kemp has repeatedly refused to say anything negative about Trump.
“I had a great relationship with President Trump,” Kemp said during a virtual news conference Monday. “I have never said anything bad about him. I don’t plan to do that. I’m not angry with him. I think he’s just mad at me. And that’s something I can’t control. “
In interviews with about a dozen voters at Monday’s Kemp rally, they all dismissed Trump’s criticism of Kemp and said they were becoming increasingly sour about the former president for his actions in the state.
Barry Schrenk, a 79-year-old Atlanta resident, said he recently had breakfast with six friends, all of whom are Republicans and voted for Trump. But Schrenk’s friends also seem to support Kemp, whom he described as an “extraordinary governor” who opened the state “soon after the covid strike”, which he said “turned out to be the right decision”.
“They all voted for Trump and said he was a good president, but he shouldn’t poke his nose into it,” Schrenk said, referring to Georgia’s gubernatorial race. “Everyone at the table said they were now voting for anyone Trump did not support.”
Schrenk described Trump as an “excellent president” without his Twitter account. But his criticism of Kemp was terribly unfair, Schrenk said. “He did everything he could,” Schrenk told Kemp. “He had to abide by the constitution. Trump … can’t be blamed for losing the election. He is looking for the guilty. “
Phoebe Mitchell, a special education teacher, said she voted for Trump twice and “thinks he’s a great president.
“But he lost the election. And the governor does not have the authority to cancel the election, “she said. “When he started criticizing Kemp, I was not happy about it. And then he criticizes my condition. I do not like this. I lost a lot of love for him. “
Now, Mitchell said, if Trump approves of a “man or girl,” the approval “makes me want to vote for someone else.”
Brett Daisy, a 22-year-old college graduate, said he had voted for Trump twice, but now he feels different. Kemp was “his man,” he said, because of the way he dealt with the coronavirus and made the country “open for business,” he said. None of his friends, he said, voted for Perdue.
Daisy said he turned away from Trump because of the Capitol uprising on January 6, 2021 and his efforts to cancel the election. “It will be enough to lose someone,” he said.
“Trump is the driving force behind some things,” Daisy said. “But if Trump had been such a big driving force, Perdue wouldn’t have dropped 30 points.”
Georgia’s gubernatorial primary has become the latest test of the strength of electoral conspiracy theories in the Republican electorate in 2020, and could be a template for how Republicans can pass that election. President Biden struggled to win Georgia in the 2020 election, and Kemp declined to question the results. Voters will also go to the polls to select Senate nominees to replace retired Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.); and elected candidates in the Texas runoff as Attorney General and Henry Cuelar’s 28th District.
In Georgia, the Association of Republican Governors, which has launched a remarkable offer to protect incumbents from Trump-backed contenders this season, has poured about $ 5 million into the Kemp-Perdue race, according to a funding spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity. sharing private budget details.
If Purdue loses, his defeat will be the third in a governor race for Trump so far this season, including Charles Herbster in Nebraska and Janice McGitchin in Idaho. Trump also backed Madison Cotton (R) MP, who lost his primary election in North Carolina last week.
In recent days, a group of Republican figures have flocked to Georgia to support Kemp, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
While Trump has invested more than $ 2.5 million in the campaign, Perdue’s team is struggling to raise money against an incumbent and popular governor – and observers say he has also struggled to strike a political blow against Kemp. Political observers in Georgia say Perdue’s campaign has largely darkened, with few commercials and few major appearances in the final days of the main campaign.
Purdue’s campaign revolved around baseless allegations of election fraud in 2020, and he continued to do so on Monday during his last appearance, refusing to promise to accept Tuesday’s election results and attacking the media.
“He divided this state,” Purdue told Kemp during a brief press conference Monday. “He allowed fraud to happen in our elections. He denied it had happened. And he’s been covering it up ever since, “he said, using his campaign highlights to continue repeating Trump’s false claims.
Kemp canceled the state tour on Monday due to the weather, and his team was expecting about 500 people at Monday’s rally. A recent Fox News poll found it garnered 60 percent of the vote, well above the 50 percent margin needed to avoid a run-off.
The other big competition in the state is whether Rafensperger, the secretary of state, can keep his job. Like Kemp, he attracted a Trump-backed rival by refusing to agree to Trump’s desire to cancel the election.
Surprisingly, Rafensperger tried to court the former president’s base by raising some questions about the 2020 election, which he refused to cancel without completely dismissing his image as an official who wants to stand up to Trump. It was provoked by Hice, which accepted Trump’s false allegations about the 2020 election.
Dousey reported from Kenesow, Georgia.
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