The primary battles that have been playing out across Georgia have been some of the most watched in the country, and they are likely only a preview of what is to come in the Peach State’s general elections.
The Republican primaries, specifically, have garnered national attention largely because former President Donald Trump is pursuing what many have described as a “vendetta” against Gov. Brian Kemp and Kemp’s allies over 2020.
Trump has weighed in on not just the top races but also multiple down-ballot races that people typically tend to overlook.
He initially endorsed seven candidates — most of whom aligned with his anti-Kemp mission — and has since added a slate of incumbents to that number, making it 13 candidates total who now have the former president’s blessing heading into Tuesday.
While Trump is well-liked by Republicans in Georgia, some of the candidates he backed early on have been caught up in heated races and are facing mixed prospects in their primaries.
Georgia requires candidates to obtain more than 50 percent of the vote to win their races outright, and in part because of how contested these races have become, some are also likely to necessitate runoffs.
Meanwhile on the other side of the aisle, Democrats have seen a relatively low-action primary season.
The most prominent Democrats on the ballot, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams, will cruise through their primaries with little or no opposition and boatloads of campaign cash saved up for the general.
Democrats’ sleepiness is also apparent in the numbers as more than 480,000 have voted in the Republican primary, while about 370,000 have voted in the Democrat primary, according to Georgia Votes.
The overall early voting number, driven by Republican turnout, has been record-breaking in Georgia, as more than 859,000 have already voted, mostly in person but some by absentee ballot.
Republicans appear fired up ahead of what is expected to be a red wave year amid Democrats’ one-party rule in Washington and President Joe Biden’s rock-bottom approval numbers. In Georgia, they are seeking redemption for races lost in 2020, they have a state celebrity on the ballot in Herschel Walker, and many of the primaries are highly competitive and elevated by Trump’s intervention.
GOP GOVERNOR’S RACE
The gubernatorial showdown between Kemp and former Sen. David Perdue is the top race to watch Tuesday night.
All signs point to Perdue losing badly to Kemp. Most polls have Perdue trailing Kemp by wide margins and the former senator has raised only a fraction of what Kemp has during the course of the race. Aiming to force Kemp into a runoff could be Perdue’s best shot at unseating the governor.
A recent Fox News poll showed Kemp up 30 points over Perdue, 60 percent to 28 percent, while a newly released Fox 5 Atlanta poll indicated a bit of a tighter race and Kemp a little closer to runoff territory. That poll had Kemp at 52 percent compared to Perdue’s 38 percent.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp shakes hands with former Sen. David Perdue at a Republican gubernatorial debate, April 24, 2022, in Atlanta. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Perdue contends that the polls are wrong, laying out his argument on Breitbart News Saturday this past weekend that they are not capturing new voters, who he says are “MAGA voters.”
The number of Republicans who have so far voted is “four times the number that voted [early]in ’18, the last time we had a nonpresidential primary,” Perdue said, adding that “the big news” is that half of them “did not vote in ’18. We believe these are MAGA voters.”
Perdue said, “By definition, when pollsters are talking to Republican primary voters, they qualify someone to say if you haven’t voted in each of the last three primaries, we can’t talk to you. They’re only talking to people who voted in the last three primaries. So they’re, by definition, not talking to half the people who have voted so far in Georgia.”
Trump, Perdue’s premiere supporter, is betting big on the race.
The former president held an expensive Mar-a-Lago fundraiser with Perdue, rallied with him in Georgia, and is hosting a tele-rally for him Monday night. Federal filings show Trump’s Save America PAC has invested more in Perdue than any other candidate, pouring more than $2.5 million into anti-Kemp groups.
Former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia speaks as President Donald Trump looks on at a campaign rally, December 5, 2020, in Valdosta, Georgia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The president emphasized in a statement Friday that he is not backing down despite Perdue’s lagging poll numbers.
“The Kemp Campaign, together with Fake News NBC has put out a phony narrative that I have given up on David Perdue in Georgia,” Trump wrote. “That is completely FALSE! I am with David all the way because Brian Kemp was the WORST Governor in the Country on Election Integrity!”
Perdue has focused on election integrity from the outset of his campaign, and Trump’s endorsement has been a defining feature of his candidacy. Perdue’s opening television ad of the cycle was a direct to camera appeal from Trump to vote for Perdue and not Kemp, who Trump repeatedly denounces as a “RINO.”
Kemp now dominates the airwaves, while Perdue has gone dark on advertising.
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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