The Grind:
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp says he is certain one thing won’t happen before the Republican gubernatorial primary May 24: an endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump…
The Details:
Ever since Trump publicly blasted Kemp for refusing to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results — results that were were certified following three recounts — many Georgians figured Kemp would be a dead man walking in this year’s Republican primary race, especially if Trump backed someone else to run against him.
But polling for the past few months has steadily shown Perdue trailing Kemp by about 10 percentage points. The most recent Fox News Poll in March shows Kemp now up 11 points over the former senator.
The media have wildly underestimated Kemp’s tenacity and appeal with voters. They also don’t truly know what matters to people when they vote. They see Republican voters as frozen in time in a cultish allegiance with Trump, but in reality they are much more complicated.
It is not hard to find Republican voters in Georgia who lean right and have also voted for Trump, Purdue, Biden and Kemp over a number of years. Voters are more complicated than the way they’re framed by reporters or strategists. Read more…