Georgia rebukes Trump over US voter fraud ‘Big Lie’
Governor Brian Kemp beat the former president’s candidate David Perdue in the Republican primary in a landslide.
Republican voters have delivered a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 US election was stolen, backing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for re-election by a huge margin over a candidate recruited by the former president.
Mr Trump had banked much of his own political capital hand-picking David Perdue, 72, to oust Mr Kemp, 58, in the nominating contest to compete for the governor’s mansion in November’s midterm elections.
Mr Perdue made Mr Trump’s claims about 2020 a centrepiece of his campaign, in a direct appeal to his endorser’s supporters who continue wrongly to question the validity of the outcome.
But the former senator and Reebok chief executive was forced to concede, in an embarrassing blow for Mr Trump, as the early count showed him trailing by almost 50 points less than 90 minutes after polls closed.
“Four years of the Kemp administration will mean that you keep all of your hard-earned money,” Mr Kemp said in his victory address on Wednesday.
“Your communities will be safe. Your kids will be in school without fear of partisan agendas in the classroom. Parents will have a voice that we’ll keep working to bring good paying jobs to every corner of our state.”
Mr Kemp, frequently the target of Mr Trump’s wrath for refusing to help overturn the election, was always expected to win, but the margin of defeat represents a stinging rebuke of Trump from a state he lost by the narrowest of margins in 2020. In a gruelling night for Mr Trump, 75, another of the election deniers he endorsed, John Gordon, also lost his challenge to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
Five states were holding nominating contests for congressional elections that will decide in November which party controls the US Senate and House of Representatives for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s first term.
But all eyes are on Georgia, where wounds from the 2020 presidential election are still festering two years after Mr Biden won the state by under 12,000 votes. Up and down the ballot, the Republican side of the Georgia primary pitted candidates peddling the former president’s election fraud claims against hopefuls who pushed back in defence of the Constitution.
The race to be Georgia’s secretary of state is seen as equally consequential as the contest for governor, as these are the officials who oversee elections in the US. As the man responsible for certifying Georgia’s 2020 election results, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was in lockstep with Mr Kemp in pushing back against Mr Trump.
He faced Jody Hice, 62, one of more than a dozen Trump-backed candidates across America bidding to become secretary of state and professing to believe the 2020 election was stolen.
With just over a third of votes counted, Mr Raffensperger, 67, was a comfortable 17 points ahead with 51 per cent, just above the threshold for avoiding a run-off against Mr Hice.
Mr Biden was the first Democrat nominee since 1992 to win Georgia, while Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff triumphed in runoff elections in January 2021 that wrested control of the Senate from Republicans.
Senator Warnock, 52, cruised through his primary and will face Trump-backed football star Herschel Walker, 60, who had an easy night too, sailing to the Republican nomination for Senate.
Georgia’s Democrats are doing all they can to cement their 2021 gains, headlined by Democrat star campaigner Stacey Abrams, who is unopposed in her bid for governor.
Ms Abrams, 48, courted controversy over the weekend with remarks that Georgia is the “worst state in the country to live”, citing its healthcare and crime statistics, rising incarceration rates and falling wages.
In a brief concession speech, Mr Perdue backed Mr Kemp in his bid to see off Ms Abrams’s challenge. “We’re going to make sure Stacey Abrams is not governor of the state,” he said.
Nominating contests are also being held in Minnesota, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.
AFP