Photo: JOHN BAZEMORE/AP PHOTO/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
Republican voters rejected on Tuesday (24.05.2022) Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the US elections of 2020 were rigged, endorsing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for re-election by a wide margin over a candidate favorable to the former president.
Trump had poured much of his own political capital into the personal pick of David Perdue to defeat Kemp in the nomination to run for governor of Georgia in the November midterm elections. Perdue had made Trump’s claims about 2020 a centerpiece of his campaign, in a direct appeal to his mentor’s supporters, who continue to question the validity of the result of the presidential elections won by Democrat Joe Biden.
But the former senator was forced to admit defeat, in an embarrassing blow to Trump, since the count initial showed him losing by almost 50 points less than 90 minutes after the closing of the polls.
Kemp, the target of Trump’s wrath for refusing to help nullify the election, was expected to win, but the margin of his victory represents a harsh rebuke to the former president in a state where he narrowly lost in 2020.
Another defeated denier
Another denier of the election result of 2020 backed by Trump, John Gor don, also lost to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
Four other states, Minnesota, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, also go to the polls this Tuesday with a view to the November elections, which will determine which party will control the Senate and the House of Representatives for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term.
But all eyes were on Georgia, where the wounds from the 2020 presidential election continue to fester two years after Biden won the state by less than 12.000 votes.