{"id":1417470,"date":"2022-04-04T08:01:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T12:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417470"},"modified":"2022-04-04T08:02:38","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T12:02:38","slug":"salena-zito-why-georgia-gov-kemp-tops-the-polls-despite-trumps-bid-to-take-him-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/salena-zito-why-georgia-gov-kemp-tops-the-polls-despite-trumps-bid-to-take-him-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Salena Zito: Why Georgia Gov. Kemp Tops the Polls Despite Trump\u2019s Bid to Take Him Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsalena-zito-why-georgia-gov-kemp-tops-the-polls-despite-trumps-bid-to-take-him-down%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417470&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Georgia Governor Brian Kemp says he is certain one thing <em>won\u2019t<\/em> happen before the Republican gubernatorial primary May 24: an endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n<p>After Trump called him \u201ca turncoat, a coward, and a complete and total disaster\u201d in front of a crowd of supporters at a rally in Commerce, Ga., last Saturday, Kemp is probably not wrong. And he said he is fine with that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never said a bad word about President Trump. And I don\u2019t plan on doing so. I appreciate what he did for our state,\u201d Kemp told me in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>Kemp says his emphasis right now is the present. \u201cI\u2019m staying focused on what my record is. I can\u2019t control what other people are doing. I\u2019m looking for the endorsement of our voters and I believe I\u2019ll get that on election day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ever since Trump publicly blasted Kemp for refusing to overturn Georgia\u2019s 2020 election results \u2014 results that were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-georgia-elections-4eeea3b24f10de886bcdeab6c26b680a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">were certified<\/a>\u00a0following three recounts \u2014 many Georgians figured Kemp would be a dead man walking in this year\u2019s Republican primary race, especially if Trump backed someone else to run against him.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s exactly what happened when Trump tapped former US Sen. David Perdue to run against Kemp in the Georgia primary, which many presumed would catapult Purdue ahead of Kemp in the polls.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/brian-marty-kemp.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption>Businessman Kemp with his wife, Marty, at his inauguration in 2019. He jumped into local politics nearly two decades ago because of his frustration over bureaucratic red tape.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But polling for the past few months has steadily shown Perdue trailing Kemp by about 10 percentage points. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/official-polls\/kemp-leads-perdue-georgias-gop-primary-race-governor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most recent Fox News Poll<\/a>\u00a0in March shows Kemp now up 11 points over the former senator.<\/p>\n<p>The media have wildly underestimated Kemp\u2019s tenacity and appeal with voters. They also don\u2019t truly know what matters to people when they vote. They see Republican voters as frozen in time in a cultish allegiance with Trump, but in reality they are much more complicated.<\/p>\n<p>It is not hard to find Republican voters in Georgia who lean right and have also voted for Trump, Purdue, Biden and Kemp over a number of years. Voters are more complicated than the way they\u2019re framed by reporters or strategists.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/david-perdue-donald-trump2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/david-perdue-donald-trump2.jpg\" alt=\"Despite being endorsed by Trump, Perdue still trails Kemp by 10 points.\" class=\"wp-image-21735881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/david-perdue-donald-trump2.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/david-perdue-donald-trump2.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/david-perdue-donald-trump2.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Despite being endorsed by Trump, Perdue still trails Kemp by 10 points.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Leland Sproul is one of them. The 33-year-old customer-training manager for a Fortune 500 company who lives in suburban Atlanta voted for Trump in 2016, cast a vote for Biden in 2020, and sat out voting for any of the US Senate candidates \u2014 Republican or Democrat \u2014 that year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fall very in line with most Republican policies, especially when they focus on fiscal policies, but I was just unhappy with how all of the candidates on the Republican side focused on social issues and I couldn\u2019t get with the Democrats, so I just didn\u2019t vote for senate,\u201d Sproul explained.<\/p>\n<p>He will, however, vote in the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary and he said he is about 90 percent sure Kemp has earned his vote. A lot of the reason has to do with Trump\u2019s influence \u2014 and not in the way the ex-president intended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs much as I agree more with David Perdue\u2019s platform, I fear his Trump endorsement. I fear his disagreement with the election. I fear his Trump alignment and what I would describe as blind loyalty,\u201d Sproul said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m worried that Perdue\u2019s term as governor would be more stacked towards helping out Trump in his 2024 [presidential] bid instead of trying to run the state of Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Right to his point, Purdue said at the Trump rally on Saturday, \u201cIn the state of Georgia, thanks to Brian Kemp, our elections in 2020 were absolutely stolen, yeah!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Statements like that don\u2019t sit well with a lot of Georgia voters who lean center right. Many are still angry that Trump encouraged Georgia conservatives <em>not<\/em> to vote in the 2020 senate run-off election, where two Democrat challengers battled against two Republican incumbents, including Perdue \u2014 and both Republicans lost. As a result, the GOP lost its majority in the senate.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/leland-sproul.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/leland-sproul.jpg\" alt=\"Georgia voter Leland Sproul said Kemp\u2019s got his vote.\" class=\"wp-image-21735803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/leland-sproul.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1023 1023w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/leland-sproul.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=682 682w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/leland-sproul.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=341 341w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/leland-sproul.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Georgia voter Leland Sproul said Kemp\u2019s got his vote.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The upcoming Georgia primary is one of three big contests where Trump has handpicked challengers to upend fellow Republican incumbents. But if all three challengers lose, that could cause him to rethink a run in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>In the senate primary race in North Carolina, Trump has backed Rep. Ted Budd over former governor Pat McCrory. And, in the GOP House primary race in Wyoming, he has backed attorney Harriet Hageman over Rep. Liz Cheney, the most prominent Republican in Congress to vote for Trump\u2019s second impeachment.<\/p>\n<p>But, among all three contests, a Kemp loss would be the biggest win for Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Kemp said his job is not to get mired in the endorsement drama. He just needs to meet with voters one-on-one and talk to them about what his administration has accomplished.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/perdue-ossoff-loeffler-warnock.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/perdue-ossoff-loeffler-warnock.jpg\" alt=\"In Georgia&#039;s 2020 run-off elections for US Senate, Democrats Jon Ossoff (second from left) and Reverend Raphael Warnock (far right) beat GOP incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.\" class=\"wp-image-21735909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/perdue-ossoff-loeffler-warnock.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/perdue-ossoff-loeffler-warnock.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/perdue-ossoff-loeffler-warnock.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>In Georgia\u2019s 2020 run-off elections for US Senate, Democrats Jon Ossoff (second from left) and Reverend Raphael Warnock (far right) beat GOP incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe took a pounding in the polls right after the election and all of the questioning about the results, but governors go through that with tough issues,\u201d he said of the initial weeks after the 2020 elections. \u201cBut I do think that situation gave me the opportunity to let people know that I was still the fighter they elected when I got in office.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The 58-year-old businessman \u2014 who jumped into local politics nearly two decades ago because of his frustration over bureaucratic red tape \u2014 said his fortunes changed when with the voting bill last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a good bill. I knew what was in it,\u201d he said of the sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that had President Joe Biden repeatedly calling it \u201cJim Crow 2.0\u201d and saw Major League Baseball pull the All-Star Game out of the state.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/jim-southard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/jim-southard.jpg\" alt=\"Georgia voter Jim Southard has voted for both former Sen. Perdue and Gov. Kemp, but he&#039;s backing Kemp in his re-election bid.\" class=\"wp-image-21735968\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/jim-southard.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1023 1023w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/jim-southard.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=682 682w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/jim-southard.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=341 341w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/jim-southard.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Georgia voter Jim Southard has voted for both former Sen. Perdue and Gov. Kemp, but he\u2019s backing Kemp in his re-election bid.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">DAVE SIMPSON<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI never wavered. I stood by our position. I defended the bill. I pushed back against the Democrats, including the president, the vice president, a lot of woke corporate CEOs and retired CEOs and called them out for lying about the bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd even though we lost the All-Star Game to another state, we got poetic justice when the Braves won the World Series,\u201d Kemp proudly said of his home team.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Southard has voted for both Purdue and Kemp. He also voted for Trump twice and liked his policies. But as the confluence of all three meet in this primary he said he\u2019ll be casting his vote in the best interests of his state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKemp, most certainly,\u201d said the 37-year-old entrepreneur and father of four boys.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/stacey-adams-brian-kemp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stacey-adams-brian-kemp.jpg\" alt=\"Kemp evaded the controversies that Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams tried to bait him with in 2018.\" class=\"wp-image-21736007\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/stacey-adams-brian-kemp.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/stacey-adams-brian-kemp.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/03\/stacey-adams-brian-kemp.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Kemp evaded the controversies that Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams tried to bait him with in 2018.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Southard said he\u2019s impressed Kemp evaded the controversies that Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams tried to bait him with in 2018. Now, four years later, he is a fan \u2014 especially as Abrams is running again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s done a fantastic job. He has transformed Georgia, particularly in my region, and has turned it into an EV (electric vehicle) powerhouse. We\u2019ve got the new battery plant, and the Rivian automaker that just announced they\u2019re going to be building a $5 billion factory in that same region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care who endorses whom,\u201d he added. \u201cKemp has a really good track record. He\u2019s batting a thousand against Stacey Abrams and I want the person running who has already beat Abrams to win the primary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is just offensive for anyone to say, \u2018You should vote for him because I endorse him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia Governor Brian Kemp says he is certain one thing won\u2019t happen before the Republican gubernatorial primary May 24: an endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump. After<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1417470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}