Trump’s First Major Midterm Donation Aims to Unseat Brian Kemp in Georgia

Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee recently poured half a million dollars into Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary race in an effort to unseat incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.

Trump’s Save America PAC donated the $500,000 to an anti-Kemp group called Get Georgia Right, Politico first reported.

Federal election data shows the payment was made March 25, marking the first major financial contribution Trump has made to a campaign this election cycle.

Trump, who was quick to endorse former Sen. David Perdue in the gubernatorial race when he launched his campaign in December, has been highly vocal about his grievances with Kemp over Georgia’s 2020 election process.

Both the president and his son Donald Trump Jr. have rallied in the Peach State on behalf of Perdue, and Trump held an expensive fundraiser in Mar-a-Lago in March to boost Perdue, whom Kemp has significantly outraised in the race, according to their most recent financial reports.

Former Sen. David Perdue and former President Donald Trump at a Trump-hosted fundraiser on behalf of Perdue in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, March 16, 2022. (Perdue campaign)

Trump has also taken a heavy hand in endorsing six other primary candidates in Georgia ahead of the May 24 election, most of whom align with his vendetta against Kemp and Kemp allies.

One endorsee, state Rep. Vernon Jones, is a fervently pro-Trump Democrat-turned-Republican who had initially been running for governor but dropped out at the urging of Trump and jumped into the Tenth Congressional District race instead. Trump had sought to consolidate Jones’s supporters with Perdue’s by offering Jones an endorsement in exchange for his exit from the gubernatorial race.

Despite Trump’s efforts, Kemp has so far remained a frontrunner in the race, with a recent polling memo from the firm Cygnal revealing Kemp’s widest lead yet, of 16 points, over Perdue.

Outside of Georgia, another “top priority” target of Trump’s whom the former president is expected to direct big dollars toward unseating is Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Politico noted.

Cheney has served as the face of the ten Republicans who defected from the party to vote to impeach Trump last year over the U.S. Capitol riot. The Wyoming Republican has attracted enormous disapproval from most of her fellow Republicans in Congress as she has relentlessly attacked Trump for the riot and for his rhetoric about the 2020 election.

As for Get Georgia Right’s plans to spend its newfound cash to defeat Kemp, Politico reported the group has been running television ads since receiving the donation that warn Kemp is unable to beat Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in a general election, charging that Kemp “dismissed” concerns about voter fraud in 2020 and that if he is unable “to beat voter fraud” then he is unable to beat Abrams.