By the skin of his teeth, tonight Georgia Governor Brian Kemp managed to scrape together enough votes to secure his nomination in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
Unfortunately it happened too late for Georgia voters, who have grown tired of the dirty, nasty primary between Kemp and the disgraced, Trump-endorsed former U.S. senator David Perdue — and the truths about the extremism of the GOP their inter-party squabbling revealed.
“Georgians are bone-tired of the division and extremism of the Republican Party,” said Alexandra De Luca, spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century. “As governor, Brian Kemp has been vicious in his attacks on voting and abortion rights. He refused to expand Medicaid, even in the middle of a pandemic. What Georgians need is a governor who will fight for them — and that’s certainly not Brian Kemp.”
Kemp is extreme on the core issues impacting Georgia voters as they look ahead to November:
BELIEVES IN 2020 ELECTION CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND SLASHED VOTING RIGHTS: If Kemp is Georgia’s governor in 2024, you can bet there will be problems with ensuring everyone has access to the ballot box. Kemp believes, falsely, that there were “mechanical issues” with the 2020 election and has already signed restrictive, anti-democracy bills as governor.
Kemp’s infamous 2021 anti-voting rights law, passed specifically in response to the Republicans’ 2020 election losses in Georgia, disproportionately targeted voters of color through a “vast rewrite of Georgia’s election rules” that implemented restrictive voter ID requirements, limited ballot drop boxes and allowed the state to seize control over local elections. Kemp’s bill banned volunteers from giving water or snacks to people in line to vote, and led to widespread corporate backlash. His anti-voting rights agenda is longstanding; as secretary of state, he purged 1.4 million voters from the rolls.
SUPPORTS TOTAL ABORTION BAN: If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Georgia’s six-week abortion ban — which bans abortion before most people know they are pregnant — would likely go into effect. The ban, “one of the most restrictive in the country” and signed into law by Kemp in 2019, is currently being challenged in federal court. But after the Supreme Court’s predicted ruling, that lawsuit would be dropped, and Georgia’s Republican legislature would have no barriers to passing even more restrictive legislation. Kemp has pledged to sign the “strongest” anti-abortion bills “in the country,” likely including a Texas-style total abortion ban, which he vocally supports.
COULD BAN FORMS OF BIRTH CONTROL: Kemp supports legislation that would define life as beginning at conception — so-called “personhood” legislation — which could open the door to bans some popular forms of birth control, including IUDs.
REFUSED TO FULLY EXPAND MEDICAID: Kemp’s proposed “expansion” of Medicaid would allow just over 40,000 Georgians access to health care — a fraction of the 400,000 Georgians who would have been covered now and during the pandemic if Kemp had fully expanded the law. Rural hospitals in particular have suffered because of Kemp’s mismanagement.
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Published: May 24, 2022 | Last Modified: Aug 29, 2022