By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College
Slipping in the polls to the new Democratic Party nominee, ex-President Donald Trump sought to reestablish his lead by coming to Georgia. He spent almost as much time unleashing attacks upon Georgia’s Republicans as he did going after Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Members of the media certainly questioned the wisdom of Trump spending so much time going after political allies instead of rivals. Not as much time has been spent fact-checking Trump’s tongue-lashing of Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp and other Georgia Republicans.
I’d say this all started when Georgia’s First Lady Marty Kemp said she would write her husband’s name in for the 2024 election. But Trump has been attacking Brian Kemp ever since the governor picked Kelly Loeffler for Johnny Isakson’s Senate seat in 2019, instead of Rep. Doug Collins. Senator Loeffler may well have won in 2020, had she not had to waste valuable time and resources fending off Rep. Collins (she beat Collins in the primary), which enabled Democratic Senate nominee Raphael Warnock to prevail in the Fall of 2020.
Now Marty Kemp’s brave stand for a Republican would probably have been ignored by the press, if Trump wasn’t so thick-headed and thin-skinned. He wasted a critical Georgia appearance bashing the Kemps, and double-down on many attacks on Truth Social, making it harder for GOP apologists to claim Trump was misquoted or didn’t mean it.
According to Fox “Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. ‘Brian Kemp should focus his efforts on fighting Crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican Party! His Crime Rate in Georgia is terrible, his Crime Rate in Atlanta is the worst, and his Economy is average.’”
Trump continued his tirade. “He should be seeking UNITY, not Retribution, especially against the man that got him the Nomination through Endorsement and, without whom, he could never have beaten Stacey Abrams, Trump wrote. He and his wife didn’t think he could win. I said, ‘I’m telling you you’re going to win.’ Then he won, he was happy, and his wife said, ‘Thank you Sir, we’ll never be able to make it up to you!’ Now she says she won’t Endorse me, and is going to ‘write in Brian Kemp’s name.’ Well, I don’t want her Endorsement, and I don’t want his…. “They’re the ones who got Fani Willis and her boyfriend all ‘jazzed up’ and ready to go. He could have ended that travesty with a phone call, but he doesn’t want to end it because he’s a bad guy.”
There’s so much to wade through. The economy of Georgia is not “average” but among the better economies in the USA. My research showed it’s one of the best states to do business. For the crime rate, evidence from US News and World Report indicates that Georgia is in the middle of the pack for crime rates. Governing’s fact-checkers have found Trump’s arguments about Atlanta crime to be incorrect, ignoring declines in crime.
One wonders what Trump means by “UNITY” given that Trump promoted a rival to nearly every statewide Republican elected official in 2022, from Governor Kemp to Secretary of State Raffensperger, Insurance Commissioner King, and Attorney General Carr, and lost them all. Trump thrust the pick of Herschel Walker upon the party, and we know how that went.
Most importantly, Trump is not Kemp’s kingmaker. In my Columbus Ledger-Enquirer column from 2019, I demonstrate how Kemp’s big lead in the polls came before Trump endorsed him, which is like picking Secretariat to win with half of a furlong to go. If anything, given how badly Republicans performed with Trump in the White House in 2018, Kemp was lucky to win against Abrams with Trump dragging down the GOP brand. Kemp’s 63 percent approval rating as Georgia’s Governor is a number Trump will never see in this country.
By wasting precious time and attention attacking any Republican who ever disagreed with him (like the Georgia GOP), Trump continues to pave the way for a Harris presidency.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.
