“Brian Kemp is my friend, a man dedicated to faith, family, and the people of Georgia. I am proud to offer my full support for four more years of Brian Kemp as governor of the great state of Georgia!” the former Vice President stressed in a statement this weekend, as the Kemp campaign announced that Pence would campaign with Georgia’s conservative governor on the eve of the state’s May 24 primary.
Pence’s stop in Georgia will put him squarely at odds with his one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, who’s endorsed and is supporting former Sen. David Perdue’s primary challenge against Kemp.
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The face-off between Kemp and Perdue is one of the most high-profile GOP primary showdowns in the 2022 election, but with Trump and Pence on opposing sides, Georgia’s gubernatorial primary also seems to be an early skirmish in a potential 2024 Republican presidential nomination showdown.
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Four years ago, with the back of Trump, Kemp barely defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams to win the governorship. However, Kemp earned Trump’s ire starting in late 2020, after the governor certified President Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in the presidential election following multiple recounts of the vote. Trump, who had unsuccessfully urged the governor and other top Republican officials in the state to overturn the results, has now returned to Georgia twice to campaign against Kemp.
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Trump for months called Perdue to challenge the governor, and late last year, he praised Perdue a day after the former senator launched his bid. Perdue declared his candidacy a few days after Abrams, an election reform champion and rising star in the Democratic Party, launched her second straight bid for governor. Trump held a rally with Perdue in Georgia a month and a half ago.
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With Trump’s endorsement and support and less than two weeks to go until Georgia’s primary, Kemp has a large lead over Perdue in two key campaign metrics – public opinion polling and fundraising.
Trump, who stays the most popular and powerful politician in the Republican Party as he continues to play a kingmaker’s role in the 2022 GOP primaries, repeatedly teases another White House run in 2024. Meanwhile, Pence is making all the moves necessary in advance of a potential presidential run.
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Kemp’s getting plenty of high-profile companies in the closing days of his primary campaign. Kemp, who enjoys the support of the Republican Governors Association, is being joined on the campaign trail by RGA co-chairs Govs. Doug Ducey of Arizona and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska. And Fox News was first to report on Thursday that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a past RGA chair and 2016 Republican presidential contender, will join Kemp for campaign stops in Canton and Alpharetta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
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Christie, a one-time close Trump friend and adviser who has become an outspoken GOP critic of the former President, has also openly talked about making a second White House bid.
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