Former President Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp could put his chances of winning the crucial swing state of Georgia in jeopardy, GOP members told Politico.
Trump’s dislike of the Georgia governor stems back to the 2020 election, when President Joe Biden won the historically red state by just 12,000 votes and broke a nearly 30-year Republican hold on the state.
Trump tried to get officials to overturn the results of the election, but Kemp fought back - putting him squarely on Trump's enemies list.
Since then, things have escalated both behind the scenes and in public. Earlier this year, Kemp skipped a Trump fundraiser. His wife Marty told a local news station that she’d vote for her husband for president instead of Trump come November, Politico reported.
The comments reportedly irked Trump, but to his party’s relief he refrained from talking about it in public. Trump’s aides urged him to rekindle things with the Georgia governor, worried that the feud would hurt his chances of winning Georgia if it continued.
But instead of making amends, Trump unloaded his thoughts on Kemp at an Atlanta rally in August.
The former president was supposed to focus on attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic party, The Washington Post reported. Instead, he went after his own party member.
In his signature tone, Trump called Kemp “Little Brian,” suggested Kemp wanted Republicans to lose the election and said Georgia would fare better if Kemp weren’t the governor.
“He’s a bad guy, he’s a disloyal guy and he’s a very average governor,” Trump added.
The comments immediately concerned Trump’s advisers and other GOP members. Kemp is liked in Georgia and he’s had two decisive victories as governor, even with Trump’s opposition in 2022.
“I think what it does is it puts more pressure on the Trump organization in the state when you’re essentially operating without any help from the incumbent governor,” an anonymous Georgia GOP operative told Politico.
"The segment of the activist class that is loyal to the governor — it’s completely going to either sit it out or actively hope the president loses,” said another GOP operative, calling Trump's attacks on Kemp a "nuclear explosion" that threatens the party's chances.
Georgia is expected to be a crucial battleground state in the 2024 election. Trump currently leads Harris in Georgia 46-50, according to a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll, but it remains an unpredictable race.
Insulting a popular governor only causes more division within the Republican Party and harms Trump’s chances of winning the state in November, Republican strategist Eric Tanenblatt told Politico.
“To win in the upcoming election, Republicans need to present a united front and prioritize future-focused policies,” he said.
Bobby Saparow, Kemp’s former campaign manager, said Kemp’s campaign infrastructure is crucial to a GOP win in Georgia in November.
“The bases are solidified. We’re fighting over a very small sliver of voters in the middle. That’s the reason Brian Kemp is the most important Republican to the general election in Georgia in November,” Saparow told The Post.
Kemp, who said he was not invited to the rally, responded to Trump’s comment on X.
“My focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats - not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past,” he wrote. “You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it.”
Though the two men have not spoken since the 2020 election, Kemp has for the most part refrained from speaking ill of Trump. At the Republican National Convention in July, Kemp said he would support the GOP ticket this fall.
