ATLANTA – Republican primary races developing across the country seem to be hinging on a single issue: former President Donald Trump’s disproven claim that he actually won the 2020 election. 

What You Need To Know

  • Republican primary races developing across the country seem to be hinging on a single issue: former President Donald Trump’s disproven claim that he actually won the 2020 election

  • In Georgia, Donald Trump has endorsed former senator David Perdue over incumbent Republican governor Brian Kemp, who refused to decertify Joe Biden's victory in the state

  • Trump is endorsing in other primaries around the country – with his grievance over his failed re-election bid front and center

  • Trump is facing an investigation in Atlanta over possible attempts to interfere in the 2020 vote count

That’s the case in Georgia, where loyalty to the former president and his debunked theories of a stolen election are testing the staying power of the incumbent Republican governor.

With Trump’s blessing, former U.S. Senator David Perdue is challenging Gov. Brian Kemp, and making Trump’s false claims central to his candidacy. Perdue is suing a local county and vowing that, unlike Kemp, he wouldn't have certified the 2020 vote count that showed Joe Biden beat Trump in the state.

“Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now,” Perdue told Axios in early December, when asked if he would have certified the results of the election. “They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for.” 

Kemp has said he was required under law to certify Biden’s win.

Multiple recounts in Georgia have repeatedly confirmed Biden’s victory of about 12,000 votes over Trump in the state. Biden’s nationwide victory also has been upheld in numerous courts.

But that isn’t stopping Trump and his handpicked candidates from insisting the former president was cheated out of a second term. It’s testing what the Republican Party stands for, as Kemp runs on a pro-business record that worked for him when he first ran in 2018. 

“Brian Kemp is reviled by some Republicans in the state who were loyal to Donald Trump because he didn't intervene to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia,” Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University, told Spectrum News in an interview. “And Donald Trump has made it very clear that Brian Kemp is persona non grata to him.”

So persona non grata, in fact, that the former president seems to prefer anyone other than Kemp – including Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is running for a second time.

“Stacey, would you like to take his place? It’s ok with me,” Trump said of Kemp’s governorship at a rally in Georgia on Sept. 25. Abrams faced Kemp in 2018; the Democrat refused to concede and accused Kemp, who was then the state's secretary of state, of voter suppression; Kemp denied the allegations. 

As he faces a primary, Kemp has sought to focus on the risks of electing Abrams, a best-selling author and former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives who launched a national voting rights group after the 2018 election. 

Gillespie says a divisive Republican primary would damage both Perdue and Kemp, in what otherwise could be a good year for the GOP.

A wildcard is whether Trump would discourage Republicans from even voting in the November election if Kemp is the GOP nominee, she added.

“I think people are thinking back to some of the comments that he made leading up to the Republican Senate runoff in January of this year, where he was talking about the Big Lie, talking about rigged elections and suggesting that people not vote,” Gillespie said. 

Two Democrats, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, won the two Senate seats that were up for grabs in the state’s runoff elections in January, victories that allowed Democrats to turn the Senate blue.

Trump is endorsing in primaries around the country – with his grievance over his failed re-election bid front and center. Polls have shown a majority of Republicans believe the falsehood that he actually won.

Back in Georgia, Trump is facing an investigation in Atlanta over possible attempts to interfere in the 2020 vote count. That includes allegedly asking a top state official to find enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory.

That investigation was sparked, in large part, by revelations first published in the Washington Post on Jan. 3 of this year. The outlet obtained a recording of a phone call between Trump and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, where the then-president repeatedly pressured Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” in order to edge out Joe Biden. 

A spokesperson for Trump previously dismissed the investigation as “political” in a statement to the Associated Press. The spokesperson did not return a request for comment from Spectrum News.