- Gov. Brian Kemp in a new Politico interview critiqued former President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.
- Kemp told the outlet that Trump “didn’t do a good enough job of telling people what he had done.”
- Kemp, who was inaugurated to a second term this week, has been floated as a potential 2024 presidential contender.
For nearly two years, former President Donald Trump criticized Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia for not helping him overturn now-President Joe Biden’s victory in the Southern swing state in the 2020 election.
In advance of the 2022 midterms, Trump even recruited former Sen. David Perdue to run against Kemp in the GOP gubernatorial primary, but the governor defeated him landslide — a reflection of his strength among Peach State conservatives.
And in the November general election, Kemp defeated his Democratic archrival Stacey Abrams by nearly eight points, winning by nearly 300,000 votes — a marked improvement over his roughly 55,000-vote victory against the former state lawmaker in the 2018 gubernatorial contest.
During last year’s campaign, Kemp — who was once an ally of Trump — largely avoided talking about the former president.
But in a recent Politico interview, Kemp critiqued Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, echoing earlier statements that the GOP could not simply fight against the Democratic Party but had to “be for something.”
“President Trump and his reelection didn’t do a good enough job of telling people what he had done and what he wanted to do in a second term,” the governor told the outlet.
Trump, who lost to Biden in the 2020 presidential election, has continued to allege that voter fraud was the culprit behind his ejection from the White House.
However, Kemp, who was inaugurated to a second term on Thursday, has sought to move the GOP forward — rebuffing the election grievances still spouted by many in the party.
The breadth of Kemp’s victory in Georgia — which was once firmly Republican but has taken on a tinge of purple in recent years — has led to him being mentioned as a potential GOP presidential contender in 2024.
When asked if he would serve out the entirety of his second term in the Governor’s Mansion, Kemp said he planned to do so — but used a less definitive choice of wording.
“My intention is to serve four more years,” the governor told the outlet.
