The outcome of Tuesday night’s Republican runoff for governor of Georgia spells a classic confrontation between the two major parties that is sure to attract national attention.
With President Trump’s endorsement on the eve of the voting, Secretary of State Brian Kemp rolled up a whopping 70 percent of the vote against Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle.
Both contenders identified themselves with the president in TV commercials and shared similar conservative positions on abortion, deporting illegal immigrants, banning sanctuary cities and not raising taxes.
Cagle, however, was also identified with his supporters in the party’s Atlanta-based “establishment” wing and had originally backed Jeb Bush for the GOP presidential nomination over Trump in 2016 — which may have convinced the president to weigh in for Kemp.
Kemp was neutral in the presidential primary battle two years ago, but campaigned hard for Trump after he had wrapped up the nomination. By far, more veterans of the Trump ’16 campaign supported Kemp for nomination rather than Cagle.
Georgia Democrats have already given their nomination to state legislator Stacey Abrams, thus making her the first black and first woman gubernatorial nominee in the Peachtree State.
“Stacey Abrams took extreme positions,” Phil Kent, chief executive and publisher ofInsiderAdvantage News Service, told Newsmax. “She echoed Bernie Sanders [who endorsed her] in wanting a larger and expensive Medicaid expansion, gun control, benefits for illegal immigrants and higher taxes.
Kent also pointed out Abrams is on record wanting to “sandblast away” the carving of Confederate leaders on at the Stone Mountain memorial.
With black voters comprising roughly 30 percent of the electorate and the Democratic Party’s liberal base fired up, the fall contest is sure to be close and watched by the national press.
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