Republican candidates for Georgia Governor, Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, left, and Secretary of State Brian Kemp, left. The two will face each other today in a runoff election for the Republican nomination. (Source: AP Photo)
Georgia Republicans decide a bruising gubernatorial runoff Tuesday that is testing the loyalty of conservative voters to President Donald Trump and their frequent rejection of the establishment in favour of outside, bare-knuckled politics.
The matchup between Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle pits the White House, which backs Kemp, against outgoing Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who backs Cagle. Democrat Stacey Abrams awaits the winner in the fall, seeking to become the first black female governor of any American state.
A well-known figure at the Georgia Capitol, Cagle entered the Republican race as the presumed front-runner, with financial backing from much of the state’s lobbying class. Even as a statewide elected official, Kemp positioned himself as a “politically incorrect conservative” outsider perpetually battling liberal Democrats and Republican insiders.
Both Republicans have tried to align themselves with Trump while taking hard lines on immigration, guns and social issues. But Cagle is widely viewed as the more moderate choice and the candidate most likely to tack back to the centre in a general election campaign. The question is whether that’s a liability that prevents him from getting past Republican primary voters that Kemp courted with ads featuring guns, chainsaws and a pickup truck to “round up criminal illegals.”
Cagle led the initial five-man primary in May but fell well shy of the majority required to avoid a
