Gov. Kemp urges Republicans to support a candidate who can win in 2024, move past previous elections

Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday it is important that Republicans nominate a candidate who can win the presidential election in 2024, and that the party should focus on the issues that appeal to voters.

Speaking to reporters at an anti-human trafficking event in Marietta, Georgia, Kemp explained the criteria to receive his support. Kemp has not yet endorsed anyone for president but recently ruled out a White House run of his own.

"I'm looking for somebody that can win," Kemp told Fox 5 Atlanta. "You can't govern if you don't win."

Kemp said he learned in his re-election bid in 2022 that it is important for candidates to inform voters what they stand for, and not merely paint a negative picture of the opponent.

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"First of all, we've got to tell people what we're for," Kemp said. "I believe that one of the things we learned running is we didn't just contrast with our opponent, we told people what we were for, what we were going to do. We did that this legislative session and I think people appreciate that fact." 

The governor also emphasized that candidates must share their vision for the future, particularly when it comes to addressing the issue of inflation.

"We need to talk to people about what we're going to do for them to help them fight through that," Kemp said. 

Kemp's remarks echo similar statements he made over the weekend to a group of national Republican leaders, who he urged to move on from the 2020 election claims in an apparent rebuke of former President Trump and his false claims the last presidential election was stolen.

"Not a single swing voter in a single swing state will vote for our nominee if they choose to talk about the 2020 election being stolen," Kemp said at the Republican National Committee’s meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Trump lost the state of Georgia in the 2020 election to President Biden, the first time a Democrat carried the state since 1992. Since his defeat, Trump has repeatedly claimed that he lost Georgia and multiple other swing states because of election fraud. 

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The former president is currently under investigation in connection with efforts by him and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

"To voters trying to pay their rent, make their car payment or put their kids through college, 2020 is ancient history," the governor said, noting that voters want to know Republicans' vision for the future and "couldn’t care less about anyone’s sour grapes."

Trump and Kemp were once close allies, with Trump endorsing Kemp ahead of his 2018 gubernatorial election. But Kemp became a top target of the former president after refusing Trump's demands to illegally overturn Georgia's election results in 2020. Trump said he would campaign against Kemp in the 2022 election and endorsed former Georgia Sen. David Perdue, who Kemp handily defeated in last year's GOP primary.

The governor did not mention Trump by name, but heard laughs when he said at the RNC meeting that the audience would hear from several 2024 candidates, and that "some of them like me more than others."

"We lost winnable races in swing districts and states that will be crucial to our success next year if we want to win back the White House," Kemp said, adding that the backlash after the 2020 election went beyond infighting over "unproven claims of election fraud" or frustration with the establishment.

Kemp said Republican candidates who spoke about freedom, education, lower taxes, less government and public safety had winning messages. "In the other places where the Democrats pulled out unexpected wins, in my opinion, Republicans got distracted," he said.

"Voters wanted to hear about what Republicans were doing to help them fight through 40-year high inflation – not months and months of debate over whether the 2020 election was stolen," he continued.

The governor did not endorse any challenger to Trump for the Republican nomination but urged Republicans to look for a presidential candidate who has a vision for the future instead of rehashing the past.

"We have to be able to win a general election," he said. "Because we can’t score points if we don’t have the ball."

Republicans to have already announced their candidacies for president include Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, businessman Perry Johnson and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are considering runs for president.