Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday he will not be making a U.S. Senate run next year.
Multiple news outlets reported that he has decided against challenging Jon Ossoff when Kemp’s second term ends in 2026.
Kemp, 61, who is term-limited, had been considered the top potential challenger to Ossoff, a first-term Democrat who ousted then-incumbent David Perdue in a 2021 runoff election.
Kemp’s decision likely will open the floodgates for Republican candidates and could have a major domino effect in 2026 mid-term elections, which include state as well as Congressional races.
A recent poll had Ossoff and Kemp in a dead heat, but the AJC reported that Kemp told the newspaper “that being on the ballot next year is not the right decision for me and my family.”
He didn’t elaborate on the reasons, but the report said Kemp pledged to President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in the Senate that he will help GOP efforts to flip the seat from Democrats, who lost party control after the 2024 elections.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Georgia was seen a possible pick-up state, given Trump’s win in 2024. Ossoff has been considered among the more vulnerable Democrats in the mid-terms.
According to Axios, Republican Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Tim Scott personally lobbied Kemp to run.
Among those considered possible Republican candidates now are members of Georgia’s delegation to the U.S. House, including Rich McCormick and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who trailed Ossoff by double-digits in the above-linked poll.
The AJC said its poll showed that Kemp had a 60 percent approval rating in the middle of his second term as governor.
But Kemp has had differences with Trump, which has caused divisions in Georgia Republican ranks. When he ran for re-election in 2022, Kemp formed his own fundraising committee, and has declined to appear at Georgia Republican Party gatherings.
He drew Trump’s ire after the 2020 elections for not working to overturn presidential results in Georgia, which gave former President Joe Biden a 12,000-vote victory.
At the time, Georgia had two Republican senators who were locked in runoffs with first-time Democratic candidates. But both Perdue and Kelly Loeffler lost, to Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively, in January 2021, after Trump cast doubt on the integrity of Georgia’s elections system.
Kemp and Trump have buried the hatchet to some degree, and both former senators are now part of the Trump administration.
Loeffler is the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Perdue, who was trounced by Kemp in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary after being recruited by Trump, was recently confirmed by the Senate as the U.S. Ambassador to China.
Both Ossoff and Warnock voted against Perdue’s nomination.
Related:
- Democrats regain Cobb commission control in special election
- Cobb Republican Party chooses new chairwoman, officers
- Allen defeats Howard in Cobb commission Democratic runoff
- Democratic runoff set in Cobb Commission District 2 special election
- Richardson removed from office after appeals court rejection
- Richardson resumes seat as Cobb commission drama continues
- Richardson’s Cobb commission seat declared vacant by judge
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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