The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pence: ‘We need Brian Kemp as our next governor.’
ice President Mike Pence said a vote for Brian Kemp is tantamount to support for President Donald Trump, as he assailed Democrat Stacey Abrams and her high-profile supporters at a Thursday rally that attracted thousands in Dalton.
Claiming that Abrams is “bankrolled by Hollywood liberals,” he blasted Oprah Winfrey’s appearance Thursday with the Democrat at a pair of town halls in metro Atlanta, as well as actor Will Ferrell’s recent campaign appearance in Georgia.
“I’d like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell, I’m kind of a big deal, too,” Pence said at the event, his first of three stops in Georgia on Thursday. “And I’ve got a message for all of Stacey Abrams’ liberal Hollywood friends: This ain’t Hollywood. This is Georgia. And Georgia wants a governor that’s going to put Georgia values and Georgia first. And Brian Kemp is going to do just that.”
Pence’s comments came hours before Trump himself weighed in on Winfrey’s visit and Abrams’ fitness for office. The commander in chief called Abrams “not qualified” to be governor, telling White House reporters that her “history and positions were bad” but not elaborating further.
The barrage against Abrams and many of her Hollywood surrogates echoes a line of attack Republicans have employed throughout the campaign, but it also puts the state GOP in an uncomfortable position.
Republicans have long touted a tax credit that made Georgia into a filmmaking behemoth responsible for $2.7 billion in direct spending last year. And Abrams
warns that Kemp’s support of a “religious liberty” bill staunchly opposed by major production companies could eviscerate the industry.
Even as Kemp’s critics seized on the incongruity of the attacks, his allies cheered the vice president’s polarizing influence over conservative voters, whom the secretary of state will need to turn out at high levels to win Tuesday’s race for governor.
Polls show a razor-thin margin between the two candidates, and both campaigns are quietly bracing for the possibility of a Dec. 4 runoff if neither gets the majority vote needed to win outright.
Kemp has focused the closing stretch of his campaign on deeply conservative rural areas and outer suburbs where Republicans have long held sway. Pence’s journey through Georgia zeroed in on territory outside metro Atlanta with a trio of events in Dalton, the outskirts of Augusta and Savannah.
Long lines of voters formed hours before Pence’s Dalton event, as more than 3,500 people crowded into a convention center, many of them wearing Trump’s telltale “Make America Great Again” caps. Among them was Taylor Bridges, who said his vote for Kemp was also to show support for the president.
“It’s like my hat says. We just want to make America great again,” he said. “There’s just so much that I think has been lost in this country.”
This is Pence’s second trip to Georgia to stump for Kemp. He headlined a rally in Macon days before the July GOP runoff, helping fuel Kemp’s runaway victory over Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. He had to scrap two campaign visits to the state in as many months because of hurricanes.
A pair of even bigger names will round out the pre-election frenzy: Former President Barack Obama will appear at Morehouse College this evening to support Abrams, while Trump will headline a rally for Kemp in Macon on Sunday.
Pence spent much of his stump speeches Thursday praising Trump’s economic record, his hard-line stance on immigration and his appointment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Two years of promises made and promises kept,” Pence said during another stop near Augusta. “But we’re just getting started, Georgia, which is why we need Brian Kemp as our next governor.”