GOP breathes easier after Trump buries hatchet with Kemp. 1/3
Rachel SchilkeAugust 25, 2024 6:00 am
On social media and Fox News, Trump applauded Kemp for his leadership in Georgia — a complete turnaround from the years of bashing and ridicule over the governor’s refusal to help him overturn the 2020 election results.
Moments earlier, Kemp appeared on the network, telling host Sean Hannity that he supports Trump and will do whatever he can to make sure Georgia’s 16 electoral votes go to the Republicans.
“We gotta win,” Kemp told Hannity. “We gotta win from the top of the ticket on down. We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House. We need to retake the Senate. We need to hold the House.”
This time last year, or even a few weeks ago, mutual respect between the governor and Trump would have sounded far-fetched to Republicans in Georgia. The former president supported a primary challenger against Kemp in 2022, though the governor sailed to victory with nearly 74% of the vote.
More recently, Kemp scolded the former presidentfor resorting to “petty personal insults” about his wife in a Truth Social post on Aug. 3, in which Trump said, “I don’t want her Endorsement and I don’t want his.” Kemp warned Trump to stop “attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past,” and “leave my family out of it.”
How the easing of tensions will affect Republicans’ chances of winning Georgia remains to be seen. The governor could use his vast political organization to spur GOP turnout. So far, Kemp’s organization is only operating in a handful of state legislative contests.
But it has been welcomed by Republicans worried that the feud would help sabotage a winnable state for Trump.
“A unified party in Georgia has a much better chance of winning. Sounds obvious, but it wasn’t totally obvious to Trump until last night,” said Republican strategist John Feehery, who called the warm words “good enough.”
Though Trump and Kemp “don’t love each other,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner, they have a shared interest in putting it out of public view.
“What changed is Trump is now sympatico with Kemp, which I think makes Kemp a more credible messenger to Trump supporters in Georgia,” Feehery said….
“Georgia Republicans have learned the lesson before that Trump’s attack-anybody-even-my-own-side style can cost them seats,” Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Convention, told the Washington Examiner. “Not doing that should be blindingly obvious, but not with Trump.”
But Alec Poitevint, a former Georgia Republican Party chairman who is involved with Kemp’s political group, saidTrump had until the fall to make amends.
“There’s a historical basis about elections that say that once you get past Labor Day, you need to have things in order. And I think what’s going on here is, Republicans in Georgia, we’re getting our house in order,” said Poitevint, who told the Washington Examiner that he heard about a “positive approach” to Kemp and Trump’s relationship last week and received confirmation of the truce on Monday, before the pair publicly extended the olive branch on Thursday.
Poitevint saidhe was happy to see two people whom he has an “extremely high opinion” of finding a “different level of purpose here” and predicted it will put Democrats on edge in what used to be a reliably Republican state.
The former president will likely need to rely on Kemp’s appeal with independent and conservative voters turned off by Trump’s rhetoric.
“I can assure you that having the Trump organization and the Kemp organization working together creates a real problem for Democrats, because we can deliver Georgia with that combination,” Poitevint said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3132881/gop-trump-bury-hatchet-kemp-house-in-order/