Governor hands out big bucks to help GOP keep its grip on Legislature

Gov. Brian Kemp is doling out a lot of money to Republican legislators — at least the ones he likes — in an effort to maintain the party’s hold on the General Assembly.

The governor sent out $175,000 that he took in through his Georgians First Leadership Committee, a powerful fundraising tool that Republican lawmakers created in 2021 to give a select few officials and candidates authority to sidestep donation limits and raise unlimited amounts of cash — even during legislative sessions.

Kemp has turned the committee into a fundraising and voter turnout operation that fills a void left by the Georgia GOP, once a powerful distributor of campaign cash to Republican candidates. The party has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend alternative electors charged as part of Fulton County’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The governor split with the state GOP last year, as then-Chairman David Shafer and other party officials openly sided with Trump’s hand-picked candidates over Kemp and three other incumbents in last year’s primaries.

The money from Kemp’s committee is going to almost every Republican legislator in the state. No help, however, went to Sens. Brandon Beach and Colton Moore, who have openly warred with Kemp.

Earlier this year, the committee also launched a six-figure campaign to boost vulnerable Republican incumbents and target a handful of Democrats in competitive districts.

Officials say the committee — which reported $3.7 million in the bank in July — will soon increase spending in key swing areas of the state.