It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) since his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018. He set out to govern the state in his first term with a clear conservative agenda, and he succeeded.
Under Kemp’s first term, the Peach State passed a law that restricts abortions, shored up election integrity — increasing minority voter turnout in the process — cut taxes, and passed constitutional carry.
“Kemp’s eight-point victory in November 2022 was one of the best electoral results for the pro-life movement post-Dobbs,” writes John McCormack at National Review. “Kemp signed into law a six-week limit on abortion that was in effect on Election Day 2022, and despite many millions of dollars spent by Democrats on the issue, it didn’t seem to put a dent in Kemp in a purple state that Donald Trump lost in 2020.”
Georgia is an attractive state for large and small businesses, and despite the reputation the media wants to give it as a swing state (ahem, I see you National Review), Georgia remains fairly conservative outside urban areas.
And Kemp’s conservative record and solid leadership haven’t gone unnoticed. A new Morning Consult poll has him with record-high approval ratings as of March.
Morning Consult: Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's approval rating hits all-time high
Approve/Disapprove
Jan '21: 47/43 (net +4)
Oct '21: 49/42 (net +7)
Jan '22: 50/41 (net +9)
Apr '22: 52/39 (net +13)
Dec '22: 56/37 (net +19)
MAR '23: 60/33 (NET +27)https://t.co/ggaryc0unW pic.twitter.com/Jpa0kToJ4D
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) April 19, 2023
Sixty percent of those surveyed approve of the job he’s doing, while only a third of voters disapprove. That’s a net of +27, and according to Morning Consult, the result puts him just outside the top 10 most popular governors.
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Of course, Kemp hasn’t governed without controversy. I know people who are still worked up over a Rivian plant that is being built east of metro Atlanta, and the leaders of the “Buckxit” movement are sore at him over the state’s lack of support for their cause.
Kemp took on two formidable foes in recent years: Donald Trump and Stacey Abrams. Since the governor refused to play along with Trump’s stolen election narrative, the former president took on Kemp and other statewide officials, putting up a slate of pro-Trump candidates for various offices.
“Kemp, of course, governed as a staunch conservative on many other issues and enraged Donald Trump for rebuffing Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” McCormack points out. “Kemp dispatched Trump-backed GOP primary challenger and former senator David Perdue by 52 points in 2022.”
Just as Kemp trounced Perdue, all other statewide incumbent Republicans held off their Trump-backed challengers. Only Herschel Walker, who went on to lose the general election for the Senate, and now-Lt. Gov. Burt Jones won their primaries among Trump’s chosen candidates, and that was because they didn’t face GOP incumbents. (And I maintain that Jones could’ve taken on then-Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan had he run for reelection.)
In the general election, Kemp easily took on Abrams, who took him to a runoff in 2018. Abrams proved her far-left bona-fides and began to fall for the media’s hype about her as the future of Georgia. Between her ever-leftward lurch and Kemp’s popularity even among black voters, the governor was able to pound her by eight points. Every statewide GOP candidate, save Walker, won handily in November.
What does the future hold for Kemp? The 2022 election cycle proved how effective a political machine he has built in the Peach State, and, while he has emphatically told anyone who has asked him that he has no ambitions beyond serving as governor of Georgia, speculation has abounded about what he’ll do next. He has formed a PAC, and the scuttlebutt is that he might run for the Senate when his second term is up. One Democrat even argued that the GOP should put him up for the White House in 2024.
Whatever Kemp has planned for the future, one thing is for sure: he’s going to continue governing Georgia as a solid conservative.
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