ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp rattled off a list of detractors and critics Tuesday night as he basked in a convincing reelection victory: Stacey Abrams, his opponent; the media, President Biden, former President Obama, big money donors, "so-called experts" in public health, Oprah - even former President Trump.
They all, he said, at one point or another slammed his policies or his decisions as governor - from his approach to reopening Georgia during the pandemic to the state's voting law changes last year to, in the case of Trump, his refusal to try and subvert the 2020 election result.
Despite all that, Kemp said, "It looks like the reports of my political death have been greatly exaggerated."
The governor, handed another four years to pursue his conservative agenda with a substantially larger margin than in 2018, adopted a brash, "how you like me now?" tone with his victory speech.
"As you all know there was a lot of people in high places who thought tonight's victory would never happen," he said. "But just like so many times before, you all and Team Kemp proved them wrong."
The governor went on: "The media, the national Democrats, those billionaire donors, the left-wing activists, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Oprah and Stacey Abrams threw everything they had at us for the second time in a row. But you know what we did, y'all - we kept choppin' and tonight we stopped Stacey and saved Georgia."
Kemp framed his victory as one in which he defied both liberal institutions and Trumpism to prioritize Georgia.
"As you know, I didn't listen to the pundits, the so-called experts, the media or presidents. I listened to you," he said. "...They ran into a big problem folks - despite all the fanfare, the money and the fame, they didn't have you."
The governor touted his record on promoting business, cutting taxes, job creation, support for law-enforcement, on stricter voting policy and keeping what he termed "divisive ideologies" over race and history out of classrooms as a classically conservative model for Republicans in the age of Trump.
"This election proves that when Republicans stay focused on real-world solutions, that put hard-working people first, we can win now, but also in the future, y'all," Kemp said.
Speaking of the wide range of opponents over whom he'd now had the last laugh, Kemp said, "Y'all, they attacked Georgia."
"But I'm not sure they realized how hard we would fight back."