Former Dem challenges Kemp in GOP primary
ATLANTA — Former Democrat Vernon Jones crowd-surfed across adoring Trump supporters in October after speaking at one of the former president’s campaign rallies.
Now the scandalplagued politician hopes to surf their discontent with Gov. Brian Kemp to the Republican nomination. Jones announced Friday that he would challenge the incumbent governor in 2022.
“You’ve seen me stand right beside Donald Trump, just like you. I have done more as a conservative fighting side by side for you and for our elections, and for America first, then the governor and all those RINOs combined,” Jones said.
Jones was a state representative on the outs with his party when he shot to prominence in Republican circles as an African American Democrat who endorsed Trump’s re-election campaign. He stayed in the spotlight as a proponent of the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump by fraud.
Jones said Friday that Kemp and “Republicans in name only” sold out Trump by not forcefully moving against the presidential election
results, costing Republicans the White House and two Georgia Senate seats that put Democrats in control.
Jones, 60, served multiple terms in the Georgia House, sandwiching a troubled turn in charge of Atlanta’s suburban DeKalb County, before proclaiming himself a Republican in January as his last term in the legislature expired. “I have left the plantation,” he declared when he switched parties.
He’s kept up a steady stream of fire on the governor. Last week, he tweeted that Kemp “still hasn’t discontinued the use of Dominion voting machines in the state of Georgia. I’ll do it on Day One,” alluding to unproven claims that the machines somehow improperly gave Trump votes to President Joe Biden. He became the first Democrat to win Georgia’s electoral votes since 1992.
“Unfortunately, some of our current Republican leaders, including the governor, refused to fight, probably because of the fear of Stacey [Abrams]. But I don’t care. Georgia deserves real executive leadership.”
– GEORGIA STATE REP. VERNON JONES
“Vernon Jones has historically been a very effective campaigner, so you can’t underestimate him. However the likelihood of him running an honest and well-respected administration with competent staffers is remote.”
– STATE REP. MARY MARGARET OLIVER, D-DECATUR
Jones also promises a platform of school choice, support for police, low taxes, less regulation and environmental conservation. He argued that because he is Black, he can do better against potential 2022 Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams than Kemp, who narrowly beat Abrams in 2018.
“We are fed a false narrative based on racebaiting, identity politics and propaganda fed to the masses,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, some of our current Republican leaders, including the governor, refused to fight, probably because of the fear of Stacey. But I don’t care. Georgia deserves real executive leadership.”
Jones has posted video and pictures of himself interacting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. But it’s unclear whether Trump will support him, despite constant criticism of Kemp.
For Jones, the race is the latest in the long career of a self-described “country boy” who went on to be DeKalb’s first African American elected chief executive. At every step, Jones has been dogged by questions about which side of the law he’s lived on, and which party he wanted to be in.
Jones long flirted with the GOP, getting endorsed by the DeKalb County Republican Party in 2000 when he was first elected the county’s CEO and saying he voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
As the county’s leader, he faced investigations of an expensive security detail, and a woman accused Jones of raping her in late 2004. She dropped the charges, saying she didn’t want to face the scrutiny, but never recanted. Jones denied wrongdoing, saying their sexual encounter was consensual.
Jones oversaw hundreds of millions in capital projects as CEO, but a special grand jury later alleged he was part of an endemic culture of “incompetence, patronage, fraud and cronyism.”
“Vernon Jones has historically been a very effective campaigner, so you can’t underestimate him,” said state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Democrat from Decatur who has long tangled with Jones. “However the likelihood of him running an honest and well-respected administration with competent staffers is remote.”
Jones ran for U.S. Senate in 2008, but lost a Democratic runoff while losing his home county. He later lost races for U.S. House and county sheriff before returning to the state House.
Those close to Kemp acknowledge some conservatives are skeptical and even angry. But they see Jones as perhaps the best kind of primary challenger an incumbent could get. Jones could draw enough attention to require an early, energetic campaign by Kemp, they argue, but Jones doesn’t necessarily give Republican primary voters an established, high-profile alternative such as former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who has topped the wishlist of Trump supporters.
“The strategic move for the governor’s team, the governor’s supporters is to remind grassroots activists that he’s been a champion for life, for economic growth and opportunity, expanding access to health and now leading the fight against cancel culture,” said Ryan Mahoney, Kemp’s top campaign consultant.
If Jones’ challenge helps Kemp raise more money and shore up his standing among Republicans, that could help him in a potential general election matchup against Abrams, his advisors say.
Georgia Republicans recognize that Abrams can raise money nationwide and likely won’t face significant primary opposition, leaving her with a flush campaign account and party unity that Kemp cannot yet be assured of, even as the incumbent.
The first test of Kemp’s standing has already begun, as county Republican parties hold annual conventions. Trump allies are pushing resolutions of censure against the governor and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for their roles in certifying Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia.
Two overwhelmingly Republican counties, Murray and Whitfield, adopted censure resolutions last week. Dozens of other local GOP committees across the remaining 157 Georgia counties will consider censure on Saturday.