Former US president Donald Trump was hoping to avoid a stinging defeat in the Georgia governor’s race yesterday as Republican primary voters decided the fate of the former president’s hand-picked candidate to lead one of the most competitive political battlegrounds in the US.
In all, five states were voting, including Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Minnesota, but none has been more consumed by Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen than Georgia.
After incumbent Georgian Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, refused to accept Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in his state, he sought retribution by personally recruiting former Republican US Senator David Perdue to mount a primary challenge.
Photo: Bloomberg
However, that might prove to be a bad bet, as Kemp has emerged as a powerful fundraiser who has tapped into the benefits of incumbency. In the final days of the campaign, he unveiled a US$5.5 billion, 8,100-job Hyundai Motor plant near Savannah.
On the eve of the election, Perdue’s allies were bracing for a lopsided defeat, the only question being whether Kemp would win the 50 percent majority he would need to avoid a runoff election next month.
“We’re not going to have a runoff,” said Matha Zoller, a longtime Republican advocate and northeast Georgia talk show host with ties to both Trump and Perdue. “It’s going to be embarrassing.”
The results could raise questions about where power resides within the Republican Party. While Trump remains deeply popular among the party’s most loyal voters, the opening stage of the midterm primary season has shown they do not always side with his picks.
Meanwhile, other prominent Republicans are growing more assertive. In an illustration of the divide among top Republicans, Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, rallied with Kemp in the suburbs of Atlanta on Monday evening.
“Elections are about the future,” he told the crowd, adding that “when you vote for Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will say yes to a future of freedom here in Georgia. You will say yes to our most cherished values at the heart of everything we hold dear.”
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats elsewhere are grappling with ideological and strategic divisions that would determine what kind of candidates to nominate and which issues to prioritize for the November general election.
Democrats were especially focused on a runoff election in south Texas, where longtime incumbent, US Representative Henry Cuellar is facing a fierce challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros in a race where abortion is a prominent issue. Cuellar is that last anti-abortion Democrat serving in the US House of Representatives.
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