Trump gets Georgia request, ignites ‘a political civil war’

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ATLANTA-Less than a year after losing the presidency, Donald Trump is set to reshape the GOP in his image on the nation’s top political battlefields, sparking bitter major battles that will force candidates and voters to decide how much to embrace Trump and his grievances.

But nowhere does his search have more consequence than in Georgia.

Trump inspired a list of loyalists to seek a statewide office in the Southern swing state, and on Monday, that group included former Republican Sen. David Perdue, who formally launched a challenge against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The move marked a rare, serious major threat to a sitting governor, who goes against the wishes of GOP leaders in Washington and guarantees months of Republican infighting in a state where the party is trying to regain its dominance.

“It’s going to be a political civil war here in Georgia,” the current Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican and frequent critic of Trump who is not running for re -election, told The Associated Press. “All of this can be avoided if we just act old and continue. But that’s not true at this point. “

Not just Georgia.

The tension between Trump and what is left of the Republican establishment has hit primaries for the Senate and governors in dozens of states-including Arizona, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania-months before the first ballots will be cast next spring and summer. With President Joe Biden’s approval numbers slowing, political headwinds from Washington suggest that Republicans could make major political victories in 2022-if the GOP can get away with it its own way.

Trump’s interest in the third presidential bid in 2024 ensures that he will be the face of the Republican Party for the foreseeable future.

Look no further for a warning than Georgia, an emerging swing state where the demographic changes of recent years have given Democrats a path to power. Biden slightly defeated Trump here last fall and, after Trump falsely claimed widespread election fraud, Democrats snatched victory in two runoff elections in the Senate in January that gave them control over the Senate.

Since then, the former president has beaten state officials who proved the election results-Kemp’s leader to them-a brutal political attack.

Trump’s main problem with Kemp has little to do with meaningful policy; he is trying to oust the governor simply because he refused to support Trump’s fight to overthrow the 2020 election.

The former president called Kemp “a very weak governor” in a statement endorsing Perdue on Monday night, citing no particular opposition to the sitting governor other than his position on “election integrity.”

“Most importantly,” Trump said of Kemp, “he can’t win because the MAGA base – which is huge – will never vote for him.”

Trump also bolstered Republican former football star Herschel Walker in the GOP’s push to oust Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, betting on an untested and unrecognized professional athlete in a Republican primary against State Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. He also supports similar candidates in Republican primaries for lieutenant governor and secretary of state, where current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is fighting for his political survival.

Nationwide, Trump has endorsed more than 60 midterm candidates so far, including several running against incumbent Republicans.

Trump’s intervention in Georgia’s gubernatorial career is a kind of nightmare scenario for some Republican strategists, who are already preparing for a tough general election contest against the former state legislator and voting rights activist. of Democrat Stacey Abrams, who nearly lost to Kemp in 2018. Abrams formally announced her candidacy last week.

In his announcement video, Perdue said he was running first and foremost to stop Abrams and an “unprecedented aggression from the left woke up.” He also slammed Trump’s baseless statements about the 2020 election.

“We just have to be united,” said Perdue, who almost lost his seat in the Senate in January. “Unfortunately, now we are divided, and Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are to blame.”

Meanwhile, a furious Kemp promises a todo-todo mess. Kemp spokesman Cody Hall called Perdue “the man Republicans have lost in the U.S. Senate” and blamed the ousted senator for a list of complaints including inflation, high government spending and cancellations. of culture.

The Georgians First Leadership Committee, a group aligned with Kemp that can raise unlimited contributions, also attacked Perdue just hours after its announcement in an email for fundraising, which took the business and stock trade record. of the former senator while in office. Democratic Sen. used similar criticism. Jon Ossoff for defeating Perdue in the Senate contest in January.

“This crooked insider and‘ America Last ’loser is DESPERATE to return to political affiliation,” the committee wrote in an email for fundraising.

Republicans in Washington and beyond are preparing for an ugly and expensive GOP major, which could eventually cost tens of millions of dollars and drag Kemp right into a state that has moved to the center. So far, Abrams has no major challengers.

“While David Perdue and Brian Kemp are fighting each other, Stacey Abrams will fight for the people of Georgia,” Abrams ’top aide Lauren Groh-Wargo wrote on Twitter.

The governor’s race reflects the GOP divisions playing out in Republican communities this year.

In Georgia, pro-Trump activists outraged by his defeat flooded local Republican Party meetings, seizing control of the party machinery while dumping some metro-Atlanta county officials deemed inadequate pro-Trump.

David Shafer, the state party chairman, maintains a pro-Trump line.

Criticized for speaking at Trump’s rally in September in which Trump joined his list of endorsed candidates, Shafer told The Associated Press Sunday that the party would be neutral on the disputed primaries and said he hoped the candidates the Republicans will “focus on their own strengths and how they can assemble. a winning coalition.”

Republican national leaders remain loyal to Kemp.

Expecting a Trump -backed challenge from Perdue, the Republican Governors Association has vowed to support the current Georgia governor in addition to other sitting Republican governors who have reaped Trump’s wrath, including Idaho Gov. Brad Little. In helping Republican incumbents, however, RGA Chairman Doug Ducey, the Arizona governor, said his organization will not attack Trump’s challengers.

“The RGA complies with the 11th Commandment,” Ducey said at a recent group gathering in his state. “We’re not talking badly about another Republican.”

But Republicans on the ground in Georgia are unlikely to play very well.

Georgia Republican Party official Randy Evans, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg, argued that Kemp may not be so popular at Trump’s base that he will lose to Abrams even if he survives the primary.

“If the party comes together, Perdue will be the nominee and then he will go on to be governor,” Evans said. “And if the party splits, that if the bitterness and division will continue in this kind of rhetoric, then Kemp will be the nominee and Stacey will be the governor.”

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Reported by people in New York.

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