A new InsiderAdvantage/FOX 5 Atlanta poll shows incumbent Brian Kemp maintaining his lead over former U.S. Senator David Perdue ahead of the Tuesday Republican primary for governor.
“Brian Kemp continues to lead the race, but the contest is closer than recent polls have suggested. We detected a tightening of this race several weeks ago and it has basically remained in the range of our last poll for FOX 5.” – Towrey
A key aspect of the race has been the endorsement of former President Donald Trump for Perdue over Kemp who Trump has consistently blasted for his handling of the 2020 election in Georgia. Governor Kemp refused demands by the then-President to call a special session of the Georgia General Assembly to overturn the results of Mr. Trump losing to Democrat Joe Biden. Former President Trump has continued to claim that illegal votes in Georgia cost him the state, but several lawsuits filed by Trump supporters have been dismissed.
“In polling other states we have learned that support for candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump is harder to detect and that the numbers for the endorsed candidate in the election results outperform the numbers as polled,” Towery said.
The question, Republican operatives around the state say, is not whether Kemp can best Perdue on Tuesday but by how much. If Kemp can win an outright majority, he’ll avoid being forced into a runoff next month. And defeating Perdue decisively on Tuesday would also provide a moral victory for Kemp, who earned Trump’s contempt for resisting the former President’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election results.
Erick Erickson, a Georgia-based conservative talk radio host, said he thinks Kemp is headed for a big win over Perdue — a result that would indicate the limits of Trump’s obsession with 2020 among Republican voters.