- Brian Kemp’s wins over Stacey Abrams and Donald Trump have made him a new Republican political star
- Some party members wonder if Kemp will run for president some day (or perhaps the Senate)
- The worry? If too manny Trump alternative contenders run in 2024
- Georgia Republicans said Kemp’s primary campaign is a model for aspirants willing to challenge Trump
The Georgia Senate runoff of 2022 is attracting plenty of Republican speculation about the 2024 presidential election – and not just because of Donald Trump.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whose star seemed to be fading at the start of the year, is the hot new name in GOP politics.
That’s thanks largely his decisive re-election win over Democrat Stacey Abrams, which has pivoted to his aggressive campaigning for Senate runoff candidate Herschel Walker – and his sidelining of Trump, at least in the pivotal state of Georgia.
“Brian Kemp not only survived this year, but he thrived,” said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia. “There’s a certain faction of the Republican Party that just wants to move past Trump and I think Kemp has an argument that he’s gone up against Trump and he’s won.”
At a time when Republicans historically underperformed in the midterms thanks in part to the emergence of unpopular, Trump-endorsed nominees, the 59-year-old Peach State leader stood out as a success story. His name now is being bandied around as a potential Senate or White House contender.
Kemp has deflected questions on whether he might seek the presidency in 2024, telling Fox News he hasn’t “ruled in or out anything” but that his focus right now is on Walker’s Dec. 6 runoff race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Runoff preview:Georgia’s Senate runoff between Warnock and Walker nears. What you need to know.
Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere said they expect Kemp to play a role in national politics, either as a candidate or party elder.
“He’s earned a national voice and a national presence in our party,” said John Watson, a former chairman of the Georgian Republican Party and a friend of Kemp.
Marci McCarthy, chairwoman of the DeKalb County GOP, said many party activists within the state talk about the governor running against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026. She said she hasn’t heard speculation about Kemp being in the 2024 presidential bucket, but that his record is strong among the state’s conservative base.
“In putting Georgians first, when he terms out (of the governor’s mansion) there’s certainly a range of political opportunities for him down the road,” McCarthy said.
Other GOP thinkers, however, said with Kemp’s resume on policy and political wins they certainly expect him to be some kind of factor in 2024, if only because Georgia has become such an important battleground state in the wake of President Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings, a CNN political commentator, said the bench of GOP governors – such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin – are among the most viable Trump alternatives because they’re outside of Washington and they’re winners.
“When I hear Brian Kemp, I hear a straight shooter, a plain spoken guy who accepts what the universe gives him,” he said. “My suspicion is if you dropped someone like that off in Iowa, they’d be quite effective in a retail setting.”
A model for dealing with Trump
In many ways, it’s only natural that Kemp would be mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, state and national Republicans told USA TODAY.
For starters, he’s a governor with solid approval ratings, who defeated a Democratic star with far more money than him in a state that helps decide presidential elections.
On top of that, Kemp stood firm amid a liberal-led backlash from corporate America, including Major League Baseball, when it objected to the state’s stricter voting rules in 2021.
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