PERRY, Ga. (AP) — Brian Kemp often tells supporters to “keep choppin’ wood,” his way of urging a calm, deliberate approach — even in politics. Yet the Georgia governor also says he’ll be “running scared and hard” as he seeks a second term in 2022. It’s a necessary contradiction as the 57-year-old Republican tries to reassemble a once-dominant GOP coalition in his newfound battleground state. To do that next November, he must navigate Donald Trump’s false attacks about the 2020 election and Democrats’ ascendance with a fast-growing, increasingly metropolitan electorate that sided narrowly with President Joe Biden in November and sent two Atlanta Democrats to the U.S. Senate in January. Kemp on Saturday told his supporters “we need everyone engaged” citing Democratic unity.
John Bazemore/AP
In this July 7, 2021, photo Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp leaves his his campaign office after an interview in Atlanta. Kemp won the 2018 Republican primary for Georgia governor propelled by grassroots conservatives and a late endorsement from then-President Donald Trump. He went on to beat Democrat Stacey Abrams. Ahead of his Saturday reelection campaign launch, The Associated Press talked to Kemp about the race ahead, Abrams, Trump and the new Georgia political landscape. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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