Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) broke down why he “didn’t vote for anybody,” including former President Donald Trump, during his state’s GOP presidential primary in March.
“I voted, but I didn’t vote for anybody. I mean, the race was already over when the primary got here,” Kemp told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview that aired Wednesday, a day before Trump is set to debate President Joe Biden on the network.
Kemp, who was referring to former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley dropping out days before the state’s contest, has seen his relationship with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee sour since the 2020 election.
Trump, who once gave Kemp a “full and total endorsement” for governor in 2018, would later call him a “fool” and a “clown” for not siding with his effort to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
He went on to back Kemp’s 2022 primary challenger, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who lost to the incumbent by over 50 percentage points in the contest that May.
Kemp told Collins he’ll still support the GOP ticket in November and pointed to other races in his state before “The Source” host hit back at his prior remarks.
“But there were a lot of other Republicanswho came out and voted in that primary and voted for Donald Trump, so I think it would be pretty interesting for them to hear why you didn’t feel the need to vote for him or didn’t want to,” Collins said.
“Well, it would be, for me, personally, politically, I mean it would be interesting if I had’ve voted for him, it would be interesting if I didn’t, it would be interesting if I didn’t vote at all,” Kemp replied.
He continued, “But the bottom line, it doesn’t really matter. I mean, he was the presumptive nominee before the primary ever got here. I mean, I didn’t support anybody in the race. I mean, I was thinking about it but, just ’cause a lot of circumstances and the way things played out, didn’t end up doing that.”
When asked if he’d campaign for Trump, Kemp said he’ll “see how the race plays out.”
“Regardless of our history together, I have a vested interest in Georgia, you know, remaining in Republican hands,” said Kemp, pointing to his victory in the 2022 election and an incumbent’s win in a recent Georgia Supreme Court race.
I He later said he hasn’t spoken with Trump but rather a “few folks” representing the campaign.
