Georgia Primary: Kemp Trounces Perdue for Governor; Marjorie Taylor Greene Survives Primary Challenge

The wrap-up from the Georgia Republican Primary night is a mixed bag for former President Donald Trump. His preferred candidate for governor, David Perdue, was roundly destroyed by incumbent Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Trump’s preferred Secretary of State candidate to replace incumbent Brad Raffensperger also went down in defeat.

However, in the Senate primary, Trump-endorsed Herschel Walker sailed to an easy victory over token opposition. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, easily survived a primary battle as well sending a rebuke to her critics:

The top-line race, however, was the Governor’s primary where the Kemp machine simply took the legs out from under Perdue before the race even started:

Few Republicans in recent years had survived Trump’s wrath. But the Kemp team reassured the nearly 200 well-heeled contributors in attendance they had a plan.

“We’re going to go f–king scorched-earth,” Kemp adviser Jay Walker told the group, according to a person with direct knowledge of the remarks. Walker projected confidence: “When you got your foot on someone’s neck, you don’t take it off until the race is over, or they’ve run out of oxygen.”

Kemp’s don’t-give-an-inch strategy paid off Tuesday with a lopsided win over former Republican Sen. David Perdue, for whom Trump campaigned, appeared in TV ads and spent millions of his carefully guarded PAC dollars. The loss underscored the political limits of the former president’s relentless grievance campaign over 2020 — and the power governors have at their disposal to resist Trump’s meddling.

In short, the gubernatorial primary was over before it started, and no amount of support from Trump was going to unseat Brian Kemp’s Georgia machine. Furthermore, Kemp had already made several moves to placate the MAGA base including a new election reform law to limit the mass mail-in ballots and a call for a full “election law enforcement agency.” Those moves, coupled with a general dislike for Perdue among voters, seemed to seal Kemp’s easy primary victory.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, or MGT, as she’s known, easily survived her primary challenge despite a lawsuit trying to get her banned from the ballot:

A defiant U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene easily defeated five fellow Republicans on Tuesday in a primary race that showed her conservative Georgia constituents standing steadfastly beside her after a turbulent freshman term.

Greene showed no signs of mellowing in her victory speech late Tuesday. She called, as she has in the past, for the impeachment of President Joe Biden and dismissed his election as the product of “fraudulent electoral votes.” She likened pandemic mask and vaccine mandates to “medical tyranny,” and bemoaned “the cruel and illegal treatment of many nonviolent Jan. 6 protesters.”

Greene called Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell one of Congress’ “failed leaders” and said to loud applause that she’s part of a “majority who even now wants to see Hillary Clinton in jail.”

“Sending me back to Washington will send a message to the bloodsucking establishment: It is we who will set the policy agenda for the next decade and not them,” Greene said. She added: “We’re going to start speaking the truth more forcefully and more loudly than ever before.”

Greene’s biggest threats come from the DC establishment since it’s clear her own voters in GA-14 had no problem sending her back into the fight. Greene has been an ardent Trump backer and continues to showcase the former president’s full endorsement.

Georgia has proven time and again to be a tough southern state for Trump despite his propensity to do well in surrounding states. Elected leaders like Brian Kemp have successfully fought back and won, a somewhat rare feat for Republicans on the wrong side of Trump.

The next big fight on Trump’s primary list comes in Wyoming against Rep. Liz Cheney, where the former president will headline a fundraiser and hold a rally later this month.