Former President Donald Trump did something unexpected on Thursday when he seemingly buried the hatchet with Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA).
On social media and Fox News, Trump applauded Kemp for his leadership in Georgia — a complete turnaround from the years of bashing and ridicule over the governor’s refusal to help him overturn the 2020 election results.
Moments earlier, Kemp appeared on the network, telling host Sean Hannity that he supports Trump and will do whatever he can to make sure Georgia’s 16 electoral votes go to the Republicans.
“We gotta win,” Kemp told Hannity. “We gotta win from the top of the ticket on down. We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House. We need to retake the Senate. We need to hold the House.”
This time last year, or even a few weeks ago, mutual respect between the governor and Trump would have sounded far-fetched to Republicans in Georgia. The former president supported a primary challenger against Kemp in 2022, though the governor sailed to victory with nearly 74% of the vote.
More recently, Kemp scolded the former president for resorting to “petty personal insults” about his wife in a Truth Social post on Aug. 3, in which Trump said, “I don’t want her Endorsement and I don’t want his.” Kemp warned Trump to stop “attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past,” and “leave my family out of it.”
How the easing of tensions will affect Republicans’ chances of winning Georgia remains to be seen. The governor could use his vast political organization to spur GOP turnout. So far, Kemp’s organization is only operating in a handful of state legislative contests.
But it has been welcomed by Republicans worried that the feud would help sabotage a winnable state for Trump.
“A unified party in Georgia has a much better chance of winning. Sounds obvious, but it wasn’t totally obvious to Trump until last night,” said Republican strategist John Feehery, who called the warm words “good enough.”
Though Trump and Kemp “don’t love each other,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner, they have a shared interest in putting it out of public view.
“What changed is Trump is now sympatico with Kemp, which I think makes Kemp a more credible messenger to Trump supporters in Georgia,” Feehery said.
‘Getting our house in order’
Some Republicans question why it took Trump this long to realize a rift between himself and a swing state’s governor would likely not produce the best outcome for him come November, particularly as Vice President Kamala Harris is narrowing Trump’s lead.
After Trump won the state with over 211,000 votes in 2016, he lost it to Joe Biden in 2020 by slightly fewer than 12,000 votes. The RealClearPolitics polling average has Trump with a mere 1-point lead over Harris.
“Georgia Republicans have learned the lesson before that Trump’s attack-anybody-even-my-own-side style can cost them seats,” Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Convention, told the Washington Examiner. “Not doing that should be blindingly obvious, but not with Trump.”
But Alec Poitevint, a former Georgia Republican Party chairman who is involved with Kemp’s political group, said Trump had until the fall to make amends.
“There’s a historical basis about elections that say that once you get past Labor Day, you need to have things in order. And I think what’s going on here is, Republicans in Georgia, we’re getting our house in order,” said Poitevint, who told the Washington Examiner that he heard about a “positive approach” to Kemp and Trump’s relationship last week and received confirmation of the truce on Monday, before the pair publicly extended the olive branch on Thursday.
Poitevint said he was happy to see two people whom he has an “extremely high opinion” of finding a “different level of purpose here” and predicted it will put Democrats on edge in what used to be a reliably Republican state.
The former president will likely need to rely on Kemp’s appeal with independent and conservative voters turned off by Trump’s rhetoric.
“I can assure you that having the Trump organization and the Kemp organization working together creates a real problem for Democrats, because we can deliver Georgia with that combination,” Poitevint said.
A nail in the coffin for Democrats?
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had been one of the leading voices among Georgia Republicans imploring Kemp and Trump to fix their relationship as the 2024 election grew closer. He urged the men to “repair the damage” on Fox News Sunday last month with the White House at stake.
In a post to X on Thursday praising Kemp’s “full-throated endorsement” of Trump, Graham called game over for Democrats.
“To my Democratic friends: As the song goes, this is The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia…for you,” Graham wrote. “Well done, Governor @BrianKempGA.”
Both sides of the aisle acknowledge that the truce will help Republicans, but it is unclear how much. Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said other factors are at play that keep Georgia trending blue, including Democratic support from black voters, who make up over 30% of the state’s population, according to the 2020 census.
“Yeah, I think it helped Trump a little bit,” Bannon said. “Whether it will help him enough to recover the state, I think that’s a question mark.”
In 2018, when Kemp faced Democrat Stacey Abrams for the first time, exit polls showed black men chose Abrams over Kemp, 88% to 11%, and black women did the same, 97% to 2%. While Abrams and Kemp are different candidates than Harris and Trump, the vice president is still expected to benefit from a distinct advantage: 77% of all black voters are in favor of or lean in favor of her, per the Pew Research Center.
“I’m not sure [Kemp’s] endorsement, burying the hatchet with Trump, is going to put a stop to that,” Bannon said.
Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr, who served from 1995 to 2004 and is now president of the National Rifle Association, disagreed with Bannon, viewing the detente as a positive development for Republicans. Nonetheless, he cautioned the party not to take Georgia for granted.
“I think the fact that both men have come together very clearly and publicly, I think at worst, evens the playing field, and at best will put Georgia back in the Republican column,” Barr said.
He added that as long as Trump associates himself with Kemp’s record on matters such as the Second Amendment, the former president is likely to gain back some voters who he lost due to his controversial comments or previous grudges.
“It removes some of the head-scratching on the part of a lot of Republicans when President Trump made his unfriendly remarks about Gov. Kemp a couple of weeks ago,” Barr said. “So, I think it’s good news, and I think by the time the election rolls around, this will be — the problems of the past will be of the past and will not affect the election.”
Trump and establishment wings of GOP at peace — for now
At the Republican National Convention, a sense of unity and camaraderie was in the air as Republicans gathered to formally nominate Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as their presidential ticket.
It was a stark contrast to sentiments within the party over the last year, as Congress has been plagued with GOP spats overspending, the House speakership, foreign aid, and endorsements of candidates other than Trump.
Democrats for the longest time have just needed to sit back and watch as Republicans fought among themselves. However, Democrats experienced their own fracturing when a wave of lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to step aside. After nearly a month of contention following Biden’s lackluster June 27 debate, Biden withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Harris to succeed him. Harris was formally nominated on Wednesday.
Now, with both parties seemingly united, Republicans in particular will need to keep a handle on the infighting, not just for the White House but also to win majorities in the House and Senate.
Jamie Palmer, an RNC delegate and chair of the Floyd County GOP, said a truce between Kemp and Trump will help reconcile the party, particularly between the establishment and Trump wings of the GOP.
“This is really big for the Republican Party, to see those two together,” Palmer told the Washington Examiner.
Palmer, whose county is represented by firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), said he would love to see his congresswoman on stage with Kemp, Trump, and Vance. He said Kemp and Vance continuing to show they are on the same page about the election will be imperative for get-out-the-vote initiatives.
“You know, people may have their issues personally with President Trump and some of his actions, but this is bigger than that,” Palmer said. “This is getting back control of this country, and I think it leads with President Trump and his agenda. I think Kemp’s help with that, the state of Georgia is going to be very key.”
Poitevint echoed Palmer, arguing that the 2024 election in Georgia will come down to policy, and a Kemp-Trump partnership will help communicate that message to voters, even to Democrats and independents who have “walking around sense.”
“The Harris ticket is ultimately not in line with the normal Georgians,” Poitevint said. “And I think that Kemp and Trump working together, that we will help define who she is and and what she stands for, and that’ll be effective.”
Not all Republicans think the Republican Party is as unified as it could be. Buddy Parker Jr., an RNC state delegate, said Kemp and Trump need to do some appearances together in order to show the state they are burying the hatchet.
Parker said the truce did and did not surprise him; an avid Trump supporter, he said he appreciated Kemp’s work for Georgia but thought the governor could have done more when it came to past elections and voting integrity — something the state has wrestled with for a long time. He was not happy with Trump, though, when the former president went after Kemp’s wife, arguing you “don’t put your dirty laundry out there for everybody to see.”
However, Parker said, now is not the time to dwell on grievances.
“If we’ve got problems in the Republican Party, which we do, just like anything, let’s fight them after this election, let’s get something done and get President Trump back in there, because we don’t — I think this country is in sad, sad shape,” Parker told the Washington Examiner.
Poitevint said the truce between Kemp and Trump could be the game-changer for Republicans in Georgia.
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“I think it sends a signal to everyone, it’s time to come home. Get lined up. Let’s go to work,” he said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Georgia Democratic Party for comment.
