ATLANTA — On the heels of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Downtown Atlanta, some political experts say he may have hurt his chances of winning the state.
Former President Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance both delivered fiery speeches during to a packed house on Saturday night inside the Georgia State University Convocation Center.
Many jabs were issued not only to his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, but toward Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp -- reigniting a feud that had long seemed to be cooling.
"Atlanta is like a killing field, and your governor ought to get off his a** and do something about it," said Trump.
North Georgia University political science professor Nathan Price says going after Gov. Kemp alienates people and divides the party.
“It didn’t do one new thing to bring in one new undecided voter. In fact it probably hurt him with the exact type of people he needs to win the state," said Price.
There’s been bad blood between Trump and Kemp dating back several years, after Trump felt Kemp was not doing enough to help him in his overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020. Trump has long claimed credit for Kemp's political rise, and the governor's hesitance to take extreme measures in 2020 to help Trump -- such as calling a special legislative session to challenge the result -- has been perceived by Trump as ungratefulness and disloyalty.
And the former president isn't looking to mend that political bridge. Before his Atlanta rally, he posted a statement on his Truth Social account saying he didn't want Kemp's endorsement and it called the governor a "bad guy" for not ending Fulton DA Fani Willis' prosecution of Trump over alleged 2020 election interference (Kemp, as governor, does not have the executive authority in Georgia to interfere in a local prosecution).
Gov. Kemp fired back at Trump on X, saying he’s focused on winning in November, not "petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past." Kemp also made a particular objection to Trump referencing Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp in the Truth Social post.
"Leave my family out of it," Kemp wrote.
Fellow elected Republicans expressed their solidarity with Kemp, including Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr -- who wrote, "I stand with Brian Kemp and Marty Kemp" -- and Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns.
Other influential Republicans in Georgia, such as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were at Trump's rally and have been staunch supporters of the former president -- but they haven't joined in the attacks on the governor, who broadly maintains strong approval ratings. Virtually no Republican leader in Georgia has.
Price thinks Kemp taking the high road will help him down the line.
“He might mend and do what he can just to make sure that he doesn’t burn any bridges himself," said Price.
Price also predicts that it will come down to just a couple thousand votes here in Georgia. He said that it's important for the GOP to get back on message if they want to win in November.