A former top campaign aide to Donald Trump says the former President will need to recalculate his 2022 strategy after incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp soundly defeated his Trump-backed challenger David Perdue on Tuesday in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial primary.
“The same formula can’t be applied to each state. His record is still really good, but I don’t think he’ll stick his neck out for the remaining big races this primary [season] unless there are clear front runners,” the ex-Trump aide said.
Trump has “to look at races from a local and state level, not just 40,000 feet,” this person added. “Going after an incumbent in a southern state like Georgia is fraught with danger. Local politics matter and dominate.”
The same former Trump aide said the former President may have miscalculated in thinking his influence over GOP voters in Georgia would be enough to propel insurgent candidates to victory over their popular incumbent opponents.
“Some states are so insular politically that voters take exception to anyone trying to come into their state and tell them what to do,” the aide said.
Meanwhile, the former head of Trump’s 2016 Georgia campaign operation had some choice words for MAGA candidates who centered their campaigns around the former President instead of local and statewide issues.
“So come to find out, running an issueless campaign … isn’t a winning strategy,” tweeted Seth Weathers, a Georgia Republican strategist who oversaw Trump’s field effort in Georgia during his first presidential run.
Weathers also criticized Rep. Jody Hice, who is running against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and closely aligned himself with Trump in the race. Raffensperger is currently leading his opponent in the vote count.
“He seemed to take the same bad strategy, just not as bad as Perdue,” Weathers said, adding that Raffensperger “also ran nonstop ads trashing [Hice] and I didn’t see him respond in kind.”
Trump boasted about “record turnout” in Georgia earlier Tuesday on his Truth Social website, but has not yet commented on Perdue’s loss or the win by Herschel Walker, another candidate backed by the former President, in his Senate primary.
