Kemp Beats Perdue By Nearly 50 Point Margin For Georgia GOP Nomination For Governor

Sitting Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) will face off for the second straight election with Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams in November.

He beat out former U.S. Senator and ex-President Donald Trump-endorsed nominee David Perdue on Tuesday night by nearly a 50-point margin. Since he gained more than 50% of the vote, he will not have to face Perdue in a runoff.

Sources report that Trump is privately upset with how Perdue ran the race, including that he underspent and did not run any commercials in the last two weeks.

Though Kemp was endorsed by Trump in 2018, he fell out of favor with the ex-President after he refused to help overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. However, Trump Vice President Mike Pence notably endorsed Kemp this year and even spoke highly of him at a small rally on Monday night.

“When you say yes to Gov. Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future,” Pence said.

“I’m here because Brian Kemp is the only candidate in tomorrow’s primary who has already defeated Stacey Abrams, whether she knows it or not,” the former vice president added. “And I’m here because Stacey Abrams can never be governor of the great state of Georgia.”

In 2018, Kemp narrowly beat out Abrams, who was relatively unknown at the time. Now, she is one of the best-known Democratic figures nationally.

Earlier this week, Abrams made controversial statements including saying Georgia was the worst state in the country to live in. She immediately explained why she made the statement, referencing Georgia’s high incarceration rate and low rankings for mental health access but Kemp wasted no time in pouncing on her comments.

“I don’t know about y’all, but I’m glad we’re the No. 1 state in the country for business,” Kemp said at the Monday rally. “And Marty and the girls and I know that we are the best state in the country to live, work and raise our families in.”

The Kemp-Abrams race will be one of the most closely watched gubernatorial races in the country in November.