Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp leads in the polls over ex-Sen. David Perdue as Republicans prepare to go to the polls Tuesday in the latest primary test of former President Trump’s political muscle.
Kemp leads his Trump-backed rival by anywhere from a healthy 14% to a commanding 32% in the latest polls of the race for the Peach State governor’s mansion.
A runaway Kemp victory would be a significant political black eye for Trump, who has vowed to oust the governor because he refused to join his scheme to overturn President Biden’s historic 2020 victory in the state.
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Trump may prefer to focus on his backing of football great Herschel Walker in Georgia’s GOP Senate primary.
The former Georgia Bulldog and NFL star is running away with the Republican primary contest even as rivals say personal skeletons in his closet will haunt him in the general election.
On the Democratic side, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams is virtually unopposed as she prepares for a rematch of her narrow 2018 loss to Kemp.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is also coasting to a win and has raised a boatload of cash for his fight to win reelection as the first Black senator from Georgia since Reconstruction.
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In the Kemp/Perdue fight, there is little doubt that Kemp is ahead by a healthy margin, although a local Fox News poll said it detected some tightening of the race in the final weeks before Election Day.
Trump acknowledged his candidate is losing by touting polls showing Kemp well ahead of Perdue but barely above the 50% mark needed to avoid a run-off.
In another closely watched Georgia Republican primary race, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is locked in a tight race with a Trump-backed challenger.
Raffensperger famously rebuffed Trump’s phone call demanding he “find” enough votes to reverse Biden’s win. A special grand jury is now investigating whether the ex-president broke election laws.
Georgia is shaping up as a marquee battleground in the fall midterms as Republicans seek to claw back the advantage they have held there for three decades and Democrats try to build on their momentum powered by rapid demographic changes.