Trump, Kemp look to present united front in must-win Georgia

Former President Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) are patching things up for now as Republicans look to put on a united front in the must-win state ahead of November.

The battle for the Peach State has come increasingly into focus for Democrats since Vice President Harris replaced President Biden atop the ticket. And Trump’s spat with Kemp heightened concerns among Republicans that they could see a repeat of four years ago, when the former president narrowly lost the state and launched a vendetta against its GOP leaders.

“There was a three-week period where there was a lot of nervousness among the ranks. … Whether the damage has already been done, at least we’ve stopped the bleeding,” one Georgia-based Republican strategist said about the Trump-Kemp détente. “There definitely was a concern there. It reminded a lot of people what happened in 2020.”

Trump’s barbs at Kemp came early in the month during a rally in Atlanta where he went on a lengthy diatribe criticizing the governor, with whom he has had a frosty relationship for years. That prompted Kemp to fire back, including a rebuke of Trump for attacking his wife, Marty Kemp. 

Republicans have made it their mission to have peace between the two to get Georgia back into their column. One source with knowledge of the discussions said that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was key in trying to squash their beef.

Graham told The Hill it was a top priority to mend those fences as Trump “can’t win without Georgia.”

“It’s mathematically possible, but if we don’t win Georgia, then we had a bad night because all the dynamics are there for us to reclaim Georgia,” Graham said.

He name-checked real estate developer Steve Witkoff, senior Trump adviser Susie Wiles, former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed as those who helped bring together the political truce. 

“All hands on deck,” he said. “If we had a team like [Kemp and his wife] in every one of these swing states, this race would be over.” 

Graham also attended a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee at Loeffler’s home in Atlanta days after Trump’s attacks and immediately reported that Kemp was ready and willing to lend his extensive statewide operation to help the former president.

“I want Donald Trump to win Georgia. I am all in for Donald Trump,” Kemp said, according to Graham. “I am going to give him my political machine. I’ve got a great ground game. I’m going to put money behind it, and we are going to win Georgia for Trump because Harris is a disaster for Georgia.”

The two sides appeared to make peace last week while Democrats were gathered in Chicago for their convention.

Kemp appeared on Fox News to urge people to support Trump.

“We cannot take this for granted,” Kemp said. “We have got to get the vote out. We got to stay focused. We got to stay focused on the future.”

And Trump phoned into Fox News a short time later, where he said Kemp had been “very nice.”

“And he’s going to work with me 100 percent. And I think we’re going to have a very good relationship with Brian Kemp,” Trump said.

Trump’s grudge against Kemp dates to the 2020 election. The former president narrowly lost the state to Biden and spent the weeks following the election pressuring Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to challenge the results.

The relationship between the two men has remained tense.

Trump supported a primary challenger against Kemp in 2022, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). But Kemp easily defeated him and won the general election by a wider margin than he did in 2018 against Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Kemp told CNN he did not vote for Trump in Georgia’s presidential primary in late May, though he has endorsed Trump in the general election, with allies maintaining he has been consistent about his support for the top of the ticket. 

Still, Trump’s repeated attacks against the Republican governor of a key state earlier this month left many allies scratching their heads and wondering why he didn’t focus more on Harris.

Biden carried Georgia in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democrat since 1992 to win the state. The state will be pivotal for Trump in November because it is one of the clearest pickup opportunities on the map as he charts a path to 270 electoral votes.

A Decision Desk HQ/The Hill average of polls from Georgia showed Trump leading Harris by roughly 3 percentage points in the state.

But Harris’s campaign clearly sees it as a place to play offense. The vice president will make her first campaign stop since the Democratic convention in the key battleground for a two-day bus tour this week, concluding with a rally in Savannah.

“Georgia is a must-win state for Trump. It is not a must-win state for Harris,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “Therefore Trump is making sure he’s dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s.”