Trump put more money and effort into unseating Kemp this year than any other Republican, but failed spectacularly
But while Cheney chose to make herself a martyr to the anti-Trump cause, Kemp chopped away at the challenge. Hearound him, locking down influential donors and doling out appointments to erstwhile Perdue allies—even the former senator’s cousin, Sonny Perdue, the former governor and agriculture secretary, whom Kemp named to head the state university system. By the end, not even Herschel Walker, Trump’s handpicked U.S.
Kemp steadfastly refuses to engage with questions about 2024—Trump’s potential candidacy, his own ambitions, others who may throw their hat in the ring, what his race says about a future GOP playbook. “Anybody that is focused on 2024 right now, they are doing a disservice to us winning the midterm election,” he says. “They’re being selfish.” Besides, he points out, the current playbook still has to be proven. “You’re not going to be asking me those questions if we don’t win,” he says.
Many Democrats credit Abrams for the state’s blue turn. Her political operation, which registered and turned out hundreds of thousands of new voters in 2018, never let up after that, helping power 2020’s Democratic victories. A fundraising powerhouse, her 2022 gubernatorial campaign is on track to nearly double Kemp’s spending. Yet national Democrats areabout Abrams’s chances.