Former top Pence aide joins Kemp campaign

Marc Short, an ex-top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, is joining Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection campaign as the Republican incumbent fights off a primary challenge from former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who is backed by former President Trump.

Kemp’s campaign confirmed Short’s move to The Hill. 

Axios reported that Short joined the Georgia governor’s campaign as a senior adviser and that Kemp’s campaign team was also being advised on broader political strategy by the former top Pence aide.

“Governor Kemp’s record of bold conservative leadership and putting hardworking Georgians first is uniting Republicans around his campaign. We’re proud to have Marc’s support and look forward to working together to make sure Stacey Abrams is never our governor,” Cody Hall, communications director for Kemp’s campaign, said in a statement, referring to the Democratic candidate for governor.

The development comes just weeks before the Georgia gubernatorial primaries, which are scheduled for May 24.

Trump endorsed Perdue in December. Kemp drew ire from Trump after he refused efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state, which narrowly made President Biden the first Democrat to win Georgia’s electoral votes since 1992. 

Pence also refused to block the Electoral College vote certification on Jan. 6, 2021, amid efforts to toss out the 2020 election results by Trump and his allies, who were falsely claiming that widespread voter fraud had cost him the election. 

The former vice president has demonstrated his differences with Trump over the matter, including a rare rebuke to Trump in February while speaking at a Federalist Society event in Florida.

“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election,’ ” Pence said.

“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” he added. “The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. Frankly, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

The Hill has reached out to Advancing American Freedom, where Short is a co-chair, for comment.