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Gov. Brian Kemp speaks Feb. 18 at a meet-and-greet campaign stop in Cleveland. (Photos/Wayne Hardy)
Gov. Brian Kemp brought his re-election campaign to Cleveland last Friday, one of several stops during his Northeast Georgia tour.
The crowd of residents and elected officials at Feb. 18 meet-and-greet at the Roy Ash Community Room listened as the governor made his case for another term. He focused on actions related to Georgia elections and his handling of business and school operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kemp referred to Senate Bill 202 as evidence of his commitment to making elections more secure, even as detractors such as President Joe Biden and Major League Baseball criticized the measures as unfair to voters.
“I never wavered. Not one single time,” he said. “I stood up for what we have done, because that bill makes it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
He also mentioned his persistence supporting and signing the 2019 “heartbeat bill” related to abortions in the face of similar backlash from those opposed.
“Just know I have been in these fights. I am going to stay in this fight.”
Kemp emphasized Georgia’s economic prosperity in recent years and how he was among the first governors to reopen some businesses that had been initially closed in response to the pandemic. He said that approach allowed business owners a choice, knowing they and their employees needed to work to pay bills.
“What we’ve tried to do in Georgia is not do mandates and divide people,” Kemp said. “but to simply give people a choice and to trust them, trust you all to open your business back open if you want to, to trust you if you want to go get your nails done or get your hair done or get a tattoo.”
The governor cited low unemployment and continued economic development in the state, particularly rural areas.
“So no matter where you are, you have good economic prosperity opportunities in our state,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what neighborhood you’re in or what ZIP code you’re in.”
Kemp reiterated his support for keeping schools open during the past two academic years of the pandemic and praised systems where children and educators returned to classrooms. He said leadership in some larger school systems that took the opposite approach were playing “pandemic politics.”
Kemp further outlined his conservative credentials regarding his support for law enforcement and backing of a new “constitutional carry” bill before the Georgia General Assembly that would do away with requiring residents to have a carry permit for handguns.
State Sen. Steve Gooch, who represents part of White County, was on hand to endorse Kemp and rally supporters for the upcoming election season.
“Our country is at a crossroads. If there’s ever been a time that we need you, it’s now. We’ve got some real serious problems going on in Washington D.C., and if we lose another election to Democrats in Georgia, we’re going to have those same problems at the state level as well.”
Kemp narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in a 2018 race that garnered national attention. The spotlight on Georgia politics only intensified after Democrats won both U.S. Senate seats in 2020, causing some to argue the GOP was losing ground in statewide contests.
Kemp repeatedly referenced a potential gubernatorial rematch with the Democratic frontrunner.
“We got to get engaged now. We got to win big in May,” Kemp said. “and then we got to stay focused all the way through November to make sure that we stop Stacey Abrams again.”
The mention of “May” was the closest Kemp came to acknowledging his challengers in the Republican primary, led by former U.S. Senator David Perdue, who lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff in the 2020 election.