Brian Kemp is the guy who ensured that Stacey Abrams could not win the Governor’s seat in Georgia by being both the Secretary of State who administered elections, even as he was running for Governor. In many ways it was a trial run for all the upcoming 2022 partisan manipulations of the vote. He was a pioneer.
But he couldn’t find a way to make the numbers work for Donald Trump and that makes him an enemy of the cult:
The outpouring of anger aimed at Gov. Brian Kemp seemed inevitable.
Some of the activists who filled the ranks at the Georgia GOP convention have faulted him for not seeking to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat — and they expressed that displeasure on Saturday by bombarding him with a wave of boos throughout his brief speech.
The jeering was so loud it was difficult to make out much of what Kemp said during his remarks, at least from the back of the Jekyll Island Convention Center. Whenever the governor’s supporters cheered, opponents booed. Whenever Kemp’s opponents booed, supporters would try to drown them out with cheers.
Standing with his wife and three daughters, Kemp powered through his address, highlighting his support for anti-abortion legislation, his approval of a measure that imposed new voting restrictions and his aggressive reopening of the state’s economy during the pandemic.
And yet he avoided more significant pushback, such as a formal rebuke or “censure” from the thousands of delegates and alternates. And he got facetime with influential activists as he circled the convention center before and after the remarks, taking selfies and answering questions from attendees in between events.
Still, it was a far cry from the hero’s welcome that Kemp, the state’s first lifelong Republican governor since Reconstruction, received at the last GOP meeting two years ago. At that gathering in Savannah, Kemp mocked “C-List celebrities” who threatened to boycott Georgia over the anti-abortion law, as an adoring crowd peppered him with ovations.
He might still win. If he manages to pull off the nomination it’s likely they’ll all bite their tongues and keep him in office. They’re nuts, but not nutty enough to let the Democrats win.
But keep in mind that Kemp is actually a far right wingnut every bit as extreme as any Trump cultist and he’ll happily bend over backwards to help Trump or any designated stand-in. Trump has nothing to worry about from him.