Donald Trump suffered a setback this Tuesday, May 24, due to the victory in the Republican primaries of the current governor of the state, Brian Kemp, who repeatedly opposed his attempts to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential elections. There are already several supported candidates by Trump that have registered poor results in this primary season, in which the candidates for the November partial elections are decided, in which the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are renewed.
Kemp, who publicly resisted pressure from Trump to overturn the election results before Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, has shown that a Republican candidate does not need the blessing of the former president to prevail over his rivals. .
Trump supported David Perdue, who was a senator and lost his seat in the same election two years ago, as Kemp’s opponent. And not only has Kemp prevailed in the primaries, Brad Raffensperger, the current Secretary of State of Georgia who aspires to repeat in office, has also gained a decisive advantage.
Raffensperger was tasked with formally certifying the 2020 election in his state and for doing so was heavily attacked by Trump and his acolytes. The former president accuses Kemp, Raffensperger and other Republicans in states that he lost, such as Georgia or Arizona, of participating in a great conspiracy to steal the presidency. Not a single US court of justice, including the Supreme Court, has ruled in favor of Trump. In a leaked call, Trump asked Kemp to find “the necessary votes” to beat Biden in Georgia, the decisive state in the latter’s victory.
The pressures of former President Trump have divided the Republican Party, especially after the looting of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a mob tried to prevent the official certification of the elections, which was chaired by then Vice President Mike Pence. The assailants attempted to capture and hang Pence, subsequent police investigations revealed. In the final stretch of the Georgia primary, Trump himself participated in events in favor of his own candidates, while Pence campaigned for Kemp.
This setback does not mean that Trump is not a formidable force in his party. Most candidates benefit from having the blessing of the former president. Some of the most ardent defenders of him have prevailed with great ease, such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia or the candidate for governor in Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was the press secretary of the former president White House. Already in the Republican primaries for the Ohio Senate, on May 3, his candidate, J.D. Vance comfortably prevailed over his opponents after receiving support from him late in the contest.
But this primary campaign has shown that Trump is not infallible. One of his candidates in North Carolina, Deputy Madison Cawthorn, lost in the March 18 primary after a string of scandals and leaks of risque videos and photos. And his choice for the senate in Pennsylvania, television doctor Mehmet Oz, failed to impose himself with force, and is still awaiting the official result of a recount.
In Georgia, Kemp will face the woman he defeated four years ago, Stacey Abrams, who decisively mobilized the Democratic vote in the state for Biden’s victory in 2020. In Texas, George P. Bush, grandson and nephew of former presidents with the same surname, lost this Tuesday the Republican primaries for state attorney general against Ken Paxton, who today holds the position and was supported by Trump.
