Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Sunday former President Trump’s attacks on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) are “personal” after the popular governor publicly said he did not vote for Trump in the 2024 primary.
“Well, listen, there’s an issue there. Kemp obviously wanted Trump’s endorsement when he was … running for governor, and he kind of turned his back on President Trump. So there’s a personal issue there,” Mullin told CNN’s Dana Bash about Trump’s attacks, in an interview on “State of the Union.”
“It was personal to President Trump when Kemp came out and aggressively sought President Trump’s endorsement, and he chose to go away from him when President Trump needed him,” he said. “That’s a problem.”
Mullin said Trump’s frustration at Kemp largely rests on the issue of loyalty.
“Let me tell you, I’m a friend, and I’m a loyal friend. If my friend needs me — especially if they’ve done me a favor — I’m going to be all in for them. I’m going to do everything possible to help them. I’m not going to play politics with it,” Mullin said.
When Bash cut in asking if Mullin would “even overturn the election,” Mullin said, “That’s a totally separate issue.”
“Kemp came out openly and said he wasn’t going to vote for President Trump in the primary. That’s what this election is about. You’re talking about something four years ago,” Mullin said.
Trump endorsed Kemp in 2018 but famously snubbed him in 2022 — after the sitting governor gained national recognition as a conservative who resisted Trump’s call to overturn his state’s election results in 2020 when President Biden won Georgia.
In late June 2024, Kemp said in a CNN interview that he did not vote for Trump in the presidential primary in Georgia this year, saying he submitted a blank ballot instead.
“I voted, but I didn’t vote for anybody. I mean, the race was already over when the primary got here,” Kemp told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in June. “Well, it would be, for me, personally, politically, I mean it would be interesting if [I’d] voted for him, it would be interesting if I didn’t, it would be interesting if I didn’t vote at all.”
Trump won the March 12 Georgia primary, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley getting 13.2 percent of the vote.
Kemp endorsed Trump in March in a short statement, saying, “I think he’d be better than Joe Biden. It’s as simple as that.” In his June interview, Kemp did not say explicitly that he would vote for Trump in the general election, instead saying he would support the Republican ticket.