Almost 15 months into Joe Biden's presidency, former President Donald Trump continues to be obsessed with revenge — not only revenge against Democrats, but also, revenge against so-called "RINOs" (Republicans In Name Only) he considers disloyal. In Georgia, one of the conservative Republicans Trump is hoping to get even with is Gov. Brian Kemp, and the Associated Press is reporting that Trump's political action committee, Trump PAC, has donated $500,000 to a group that is running anti-Kemp attack ads and is seemingly trying to help Kemp's GOP primary opponent, former Sen. David Perdue.
In Trump's mind, Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger committed a cardinal sin when they refused to go along with the Big Lie and acknowledged Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election. Perdue, in contrast, has shamelessly promoted the Big Lie, making the false and totally debunked claim that the election was stolen from Trump through widespread voter fraud.
The $500,000 donation from Trump PAC, according to AP, went to a group called the Get Georgia Right PAC.
AP's Jeff Amy reports, "The spending appears aimed at boosting former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, whom Trump has endorsed in the GOP gubernatorial primary. But the ad never mentions Perdue by name. It's the first major outlay from Trump's Save America PAC, underlining Trump's continuing obsession with beating Kemp. Trump views Kemp as disloyal for refusing to help overturn his defeat in the state's 2020 presidential election."
An anti-Kemp ad from Get Georgia Right, Amy notes, "criticizes Kemp for not doing enough to combat voter fraud, citing discredited claims that a Georgia law enforcement agency examined and dismissed."
If Kemp wins the 2022 GOP gubernatorial nomination in Georgia, the Peach State will likely see a Kemp/Stacey Abrams rematch. Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams in Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race, and the fact that a liberal Democrat like Abrams performed as well as she did in what had been a deep red state made her a major figure in her party. Now, Abrams is running for governor again, and she is running a lot of ads in her state.
I’m proud to have President Trump’s Complete & Total Endorsement. Georgians are tired of do-nothing, weak-kneed politicians. As Governor, I’ll be a fighter, who never caves to the woke left.
— David Perdue (@DavidPerdueGA) February 1, 2022
Conservatives know they can count on me to secure our elections, stop Stacey & save GA! pic.twitter.com/bqN6KrocC8
My business partner and I built a company to help finance other small businesses so they could save and grow jobs.
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) April 12, 2022
Watch our new ad: pic.twitter.com/n0NeDUe9lV
So far, Kemp has been leading Perdue in the polls. A Hill/Emerson College poll released in early April found Kemp ahead of Perdue by 11%, which is also the lead that Kemp had in a Fox News poll released in March. An InsiderAdvantage poll, also released in March, found Perdue trailing Kemp by 9%.
Amy explains, "A Perdue loss in Georgia in the state's May 24 primary could be particularly embarrassing for Trump, who recruited Perdue to challenge Kemp and pressed another Republican — Vernon Jones — to exit the governor's race and run for Congress instead. Trump has also endorsed an extensive slate of other Republicans in Georgia running for statewide and congressional offices."
The fact that Trump continues to hold a grudge against Kemp was painfully obvious during a March 26 rally in Commerce, Georgia, where the one-term president described Georgia's governor as a "turncoat," a "coward" and a "complete and total disaster." Perdue also spoke at that rally, falsely claiming, "Our elections in 2020 were absolutely stolen."
