The Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary, set for May 24, is shaping up to be yet another high-stakes test of the power of former president Donald Trump’s endorsement. And this morning brought news that former vice president Mike Pence has decided to increase the stakes — by campaigning against Trump’s pick in the race.
Incumbent governor Brian Kemp earned Trump’s ire after refusing to go along with the latter’s desire to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. In a familiar fit of pique, Trump encouraged David Perdue to challenge Kemp, and then endorsed Perdue when he announced his campaign.
Perdue was available because he had lost a runoff election to Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff in early 2021, despite prevailing over Ossoff on Election Day (but with less than 50 percent of the vote). Perdue’s loss, together with Kelly Loeffler’s defeat at the hands of Democrat Raphael Warnock, secured Democratic control of the Senate. Both losses can fairly be attributed to Trump’s effort, between Election Day 2020 and January 6, 2021, to overturn the 2020 election. During this period, Trump spent little time actually campaigning for Loeffler and Perdue and largely focused on his stolen-election obsessions when he did, promulgating and promoting counterproductive theories about how the Georgia Senate vote would be rigged.
This is the fraught background of the gubernatorial contest. But so far, Perdue’s campaign, heavily tied to Trump and to stolen-election claims, has been struggling. Recent polls have shown Kemp far enough ahead of Perdue to clear the 50 percent threshold that would force a runoff. Supporting Kemp, and perhaps also sensing an opportunity to push back on Trump’s grievances — worth distinguishing from the positive aspects of Trump’s agenda and legacy — several influential individuals and organizations have turned toward Georgia. The Republican Governors Association, headed by Arizona governor Doug Ducey, has spent heavily on the race. Ducey himself, along with Republican governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska (fresh off a triumph over Trump in that state), will also campaign for Kemp.
But Pence’s support for Kemp — he proudly offered his “full support for four more years of Brian Kemp as governor of the great state of Georgia” and will hold a rally for the governor — obviously stands out. Politico argues that Pence has been carefully cultivating his public image in recent months, embracing the achievements and legacy of what he has called in these pages the “Trump-Pence administration” while distancing himself from some of the more injurious aspects of Trump himself. The aim of this seems to be to carve out a unique path for himself. In a late-March article for National Review, Pence outlined a “Freedom Agenda” and argued that “we cannot afford to take our eyes off the task in front of us, or to be distracted by grievances of the past.”
It appears fairly evident that Pence has ambitions for himself that draw from his time as vice president but are constrained neither by that period nor by the man with whom he served. If that’s accurate, then Georgia is looking like a good place to do it — for him, and for a country, movement, and party that should move on from Trump’s grievances.
If Kemp prevails, he will face would-be president of Earth Stacey Abrams, who is not currently governor of Georgia. On at least one occasion, Trump has said he might prefer Abrams over Kemp.