Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he believes voters in the state will “understand who’s being truthful with them” and that he looks forward to pointing out Stacey Abrams’ record in the upcoming midterm elections.
Kemp demolished GOP challenger David Perdue in the Tuesday primary and Abrams finally clinched a nomination waiting for her after no other members of her party jumped in.
The slugfest between Kemp and Abrams in the intense and highly watched governor’s race promises to be pricey, long and ugly, reports The Associated Press.
Kemp is eager to tie Abrams to President Joe Biden in this year’s rematch, seeking to drag her down with the weight of the Democrat president’s unpopularity.
Abrams wants to make the campaign all about the shortcomings in Kemp’s record, repeating multiple times in a Tuesday news conference that Kemp “doesn’t care about the people of Georgia.”
"All I know is your record matters," Kemp said on Fox News on Thursday. "When we were talking to people, they appreciate that I fought to keep our state open even when I was getting criticized, that I fought to get our kids back into classrooms, that I stood up to Major League Baseball when we passed the Election Integrity Act, when I stood up to Hollywood when we passed the heartbeat bill.
"I think Georgians want somebody who's gonna do what is right for them. They want somebody to fight for them and they want somebody to do simply what they say they're gonna do when they're running. That's what I've done, and I think that's what resonated with people and that's what paid off with people because I've been honest and truthful with them about everything I've had to deal with – the good, bad and ugly."
Georgia politics, once sleepy and Republican-dominated, have never settled down since 2018, and the intensity is clearly driving voter interest. More than 1.9 million Georgians cast ballots in the primaries.
Republican turnout of nearly 1.2 million topped the previous 2020 record, while Democratic turnout of more than 700,000, despite few compelling races, topped the 2018 midterm record, but not the 2020 record.
Abrams on Tuesday promised to keep expanding what she called “one of the most impressive apparatuses for voter engagement.”
“This is going to be an expensive race,” Abrams said. “But our investment is not going to be in tit-for-tat politics. It’s going to be in making sure that every Georgia voter knows how to vote, knows why to vote, and knows where to vote. And we’re going to give them a reason to vote.”
Scott told Fox he believes most Georgians “understand who’s being truthful with them and who’s not” and that he hopes to be “rewarded in November because of that.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.