Former President Trump put aside his differences Friday with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and met with Kemp in the hurricane-ravaged community of Evans, Georgia, for their first joint appearance since Kemp refused to help Trump to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
After shaking hands at a news conference, Trump praised Kemp. “Your governor is doing a fantastic job,” Trump said.
It was a significant public shift, calibrated to unite Georgia Republicans ahead of the close Nov. 5 election.
Over the past four years, Trump has repeatedly tried to undermine Kemp, blaming the Georgia Republican leader for not doing enough to overturn his 2020 loss and endorse a rival gubernatorial candidate in 2022. Just a few months ago, he insulted Kemp as a “bad guy”. ”
But getting conservatives to the polls and courting undecided voters is key for Republicans in this southern battleground state.
President Biden won Georgia in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, and polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight.com show Trump ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia by just 1.3 percentage points, within the margin of error.
With Trump and Harris side by side, the two men presented a united front.
“I am honored and want to thank President Trump for returning to our state for the second time to… maintain a national focus on our state as we recover,” Kemp said after the two Republican leaders attended a briefing about the hurricane. damage in Evans, a conservative suburb of Augusta that suffered severe storm damage.
When asked about his relationship with the governor, Trump said, “We've always worked very well together.”
Georgia political observers emphasize that it would be unwise for Trump to become an enemy of Kemp, the state's most popular and powerful elected official.
“The joint appearance could calm some Republicans upset by the attacks on Kemp,” said Republican strategist Brian Robinson, former communications director for former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. “It doesn't actually add votes, but it's important for Trump to keep Kemp on the team rowing in the same direction. “Kemp would never publicly object, but it would be damaging if he did.”
Earlier this week, Kemp did not join Trump when the former president traveled to Valdosta, Georgia, to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helene.
At a rally this week, Trump criticized Biden for “sleeping” after the hurricane brought torrential rain to the region and falsely claimed that Kemp failed to contact Biden to request federal assistance, which Kemp later disputed.
At a rally in Atlanta in August, Trump surprised many Georgia conservatives when he chastised Kemp as “little Brian.” He said that under Kemp's leadership the state had “gone to hell” and Atlanta was “a killing field.” He also accused Kemp's wife, Marty, who months earlier told a reporter that she planned to write on Kemp's behalf for president, of disloyalty.
“Leave my family out of this,” Kemp replied of past. “
Many Georgia Republicans rallied against Trump in support of Kemp, who crushed his Trump-backed rival in the 2022 Republican primary before winning against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Still, Kemp refused to break with the former president, insisting that he would use his strong political machine this fall to boost Trump's bid for the White House in 2024.
“This is still a state we can win if we have all the mechanisms and things that need to be done to win an election,” Kemp said in August. “We have raised enough money and we have good candidates.
Just before Harris accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Trump reached out to Kemp via social platform X and thanked him for his “help and support in Georgia, where a victory is so important.”
“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
And last week he expanded on that proposal, calling Kemp “fantastic” on a visit to Savannah before the hurricane hit.
Still, Trump's praise for Kemp may not last long. Trump has been indicted in Georgia – a 98-page indictment filed by the Fulton County district. Lawyer. Fani Willis claims the former president “illegally conspired” to change the outcome of the election, and Kemp could serve as a potential witness in the former president's trial.
