By BILL BARROW (Associated Press)
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will support his fellow Republicans’ presidential ticket in November. That does not mean he will publicly endorse former President Donald Trump.
“I’m going to support the nominee,” Kemp told reporters this week after Trump won his state’s primary on his way to becoming the GOP nominee.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, once a preferred potential presidential candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, officially endorsed the former president last week. But he did so only after Trump won the Virginia primary on Super Tuesday. And Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, one of the nation’s highest-ranking Black Republicans, still won’t endorse him. “Everybody has to make their own decision,” she told reporters after Trump’s victory. She then cited an Old Testament verse, Hosea 8:4, that reads in part, “They have set up kings, but not by me.” While Trump easily won the Republican nomination for the third time, his control of the party isn’t absolute. Some prominent members of his party, particularly in swing states with voters skeptical of Trump, are trying to keep their distance while securing their own futures. For figures like Kemp and Youngkin, who could run for president in four years, that means careful positioning intended to satisfy enough Trump supporters without alienating voters repelled by the former president. For Trump, it means a more difficult path to winning support in battleground states he lost to Biden in 2020 and Kemp and Youngkin won since, to then implement policies favored by the right.“He’s the King Kong of Republican politics,” Whit Ayres, who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign in 2016, said in an interview leading up to Trump officially securing the nomination. But, Ayres said, that’s not the same thing as unifying the party and expanding the coalition in a general election. A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to an Associated Press inquiry about how the former president plans to build party unity or seek more endorsements before November.Trump heads into a rematch with President Joe Biden facing a contingent of Republican dissenters, many of whom supported former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley before she dropped out after Super Tuesday. Haley had better results than expected throughout the primary in areas with lots of suburban voters and college graduates, highlighting Trump’s lasting weaknesses with those groups.
Haley won 35% of Virginia’s primary vote. And nearly 78,000 people in Georgia — about 13% of the total vote — chose her in Tuesday’s primary, though early voting was open before she dropped out.
declined to endorse Trump
as she suspended her campaign and instead urged him to try “bringing people into your cause, not turning them away.”
Trump “has to earn the votes of people who have moved away from the party,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a national GOP fundraiser who backed Haley over Trump.
Tanenblatt said he believes there is no proof so far that Trump or his team are actively trying to persuade skeptical Republicans, and he argued that successful Republican elected officials are well-positioned to let 2024 unfold in their own way.
In 2021, one year after Biden won Virginia by a large margin, Youngkin maintained Trump's advantage in rural areas and small towns but convinced enough Biden votersin more urban and suburban areas. In Georgia, Trump did not perform as well in the Atlanta suburbs, which helped Biden win the state by a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Two years later, Kemp easily won re-election by 7.5 points,
exceeding Trump's results
Haley across the state. Kemp, on his part, seems to have decided how to navigate his party's divided politics: criticize Biden, focus on Georgia, and talk about the future.
"It doesn't really matter who our nominee is or would have been – my goal is to make sure we're keeping our legislative majorities," Kemp said this week, making it clear that his top electoral priority is his own state.
Like Trump, Kemp has been particularly vocal about immigration, especially since
a nursing student, was killed in Athens, Georgia, leading authorities to charge a man they say entered the U.S. illegally from Venezuela. "The president had control of the House and the Senate from 2020 to 2022 and did nothing about the border, and we were complaining just as much then as we are now," Kemp said this week, criticizing Biden for using his State of the Union to remind voters that Senate Republicans blocked a border security deal. But Kemp remains dismissive of Trump's
ongoing falsehoods
about his loss being somehow rigged, often saying that Republicans "don't need to be looking in the rearview mirror" or "complaining about the 2020 election." He typically avoids naming Trump when giving that advice, too.
The governor and the former president have had an uneasy relationship since Kemp rejected Trump's pressure to help overturn Biden's victory in Georgia – a campaign for which the former president now faces a Laken Rileyracketeering indictment
in Fulton County. "We have to give people a reason to vote for us, not just be against the other candidate," Kemp said. When explicitly asked why he would support Trump after how aggressively the former president criticized him after 2020, Kemp shifted the focus to the opposition. "Well, I think he'd be better than Joe Biden," Kemp said. "It's as simple as that." Youngkin was a bit more complimentary. In his endorsement, Youngkin praised Trump's record on taxes, immigration, and the economy and said "it's time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation, not four more years of President Biden."
Still, that argument came in a written statement issued by Youngkin's political action committee and circulated on social media, not in a live event with voters or where the governor could take questions. Whether or not Trump wins in November, Republicans who distance themselves from him now may have to appease Trump's most fervent supporters in a future presidential primary. Rose McDonald, an 87-year-old who voted Tuesday for Trump in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, insisted that “there were things that happened that we know weren’t right with all those mail votes.” However, federal and state investigations have found no evidence of tampering with mail-in ballots that could have influenced the election.
“I’m mostly content with Kemp,” she said. “Mostly – I still think he was hesitant in 2020 for not allowing Trump to challenge the election.” Kemp believes his political organization, even if it remains focused only on legislative races, will demonstrate his worth and loyalty to the party. “My belief is if we perform well as Republicans and communicate our values and maintain focus on the future, we’ll have a great night,” Kemp said, “and that’ll apply to all levels of the ticket.”
Many GOP leaders in battleground states are providing Trump only lukewarm support — or not endorsing him at all.
Youngkin was a bit more complimentary. In his endorsement, Youngkin praised Trump’s record on taxes, immigration and the economy and said “it’s time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation, not four more years of President Biden.”
Still, that argument came in a written statement issued by Youngkin’s political action committee and circulated on social media, not in a live event with voters or where the governor could take questions.
Whether or not Trump wins in November, Republicans who distance themselves from him now may have to placate Trump’s most ardent fans in a future presidential primary.
Rose McDonald, an 87-year-old who voted Tuesday for Trump in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, insisted “there were things that happened that we know weren’t right with all those mail votes.” Federal and state investigations have found no evidence of tampering with mail-in ballots that could have swung the election.
“I’m mostly satisfied with Kemp,” she said. “Mostly – I still think he was a chicken in 2020 for not letting Trump challenge the election.”
Kemp believes his political organization, even if it stays focused exclusively on legislative races, will prove his value and loyalty to the party.
“My belief is if we do that well as Republicans and tell people what we’re for and stay focused on the future, we’ll have a great night,” Kemp said, “and that’ll be all the way up and down the ticket.”
