Governor Kemp on Beating Stacey Abrams and the Atlanta World Cup

BUCK: Governor Brian Kemp of the great state of Georgia is with us now. Governor, thanks for calling in. Appreciate you.

GOV. KEMP: Hey, great to be back, guys. How’s it going?

BUCK: We’re good. So, we were just talking before you called in about absolutely critical states and races going into the midterm. How are you feeling about the GOP in Georgia statewide and then, more specifically, of course, your showdown with Democrat candidate Stacey Abrams? Just a matter of months before the votes will be cast.

GOV. KEMP: Look, I feel great. A lot of momentum for our campaign coming out of the primaries. My ultimate goal and my focus the whole race has been making sure Stacey Abrams is not our governor or your next president, ’cause we know that’s what she wants to do. I think Georgians are realizing that the Biden-Abrams agenda that she embraced and helped put in place in Washington, D.C., is not working out so well.

It’s 40-year-high inflation, people are getting crushed when they go to the grocery store, when they go to the hardware store and they’re certainly getting crushed when they go to the gas pump. And this administration is just tone-deaf to what fixes that and what they need to do and there’s a lot of other disasters all over, as you know, down at the border and other things. And that’s the same way that she would take our state so that’s why we’re in a a fight for the soul of our state.

We’re working hard every day and we got a lot of great partners that I’m gonna be on the ticket with that have had great success in the state of Georgia. We’re having our lowest… Our unemployment rate dropped again, believe it or not, it’s the lowest it’s ever been. We got by far the most people ever working in our state. We’re doing a lot of things, guys, to help Georgians fight through this 40-year-high inflation. I’ve suspended the gas tax, so we’ve got the lowest gas in the country right now even though it’s still outrageous ’cause of the administration’s policy. We’re also sending a billion dollars back to the taxpayers, so they got a little more money in their pocket as well as doing a tax cut. And those (audio drops) Stacey Abrams has criticized.

CLAY: Stacey Abrams also… Governor, I appreciate you coming on. This is Clay. Stacey Abrams also got a big shout-out from Joe Biden recently. And I think you’re right. I think she’s trying to use the platform of the governor’s office in Georgia if she were to win to try to run for president of the United States. You’re the incumbent governor there. I think you’re gonna kick her ass and win confidential. That’s my breakdown. What is the impact if Stacey Abrams were to win in Georgia? What would happen?

GOV. KEMP: Well, that’s the thing, guys. I mean, Stacey Abrams doesn’t really care about our state. She’s been all over the country selling her book. She was in Hollywood with all these celebrities last week raising tens of millions of dollars, and it’s all… You know, she cares more about their policies than she cares about how hardworking Georgians are feeling right now. And that’s why she said this is the worst state in the country to live in. I obviously disagree with that. I think it’s the greatest state in the country to live, work, and raise our families.

You know, we’ve seen a lot of success. Our people have been very resilient, fought through covid and they’ve been free to be able to do that, unlike her policies that want mandates and criticize reopening the economy, criticizing us when we’re getting our kids back in the classrooms. You know, I don’t have to remind you all about criticizing us over strong Elections Integrity Act to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

She pressured Major League Baseball and the Players Association so the All-Star Game was moved. And she didn’t care about how that was gonna affect small business owners in Georgia or our state. But you know what? People realize that that’s not where they are. And they saw it in our primary just a few weeks ago where we had record turnout. So, people know that they’re just selling a bill of goods, have been lying to folks.

And I’ve been sitting up there being transparent with people and putting them first over the policymakers like Joe Biden that she’s cozying up to in Washington, D.C., or the liberal elite out in Hollywood that are funding her campaign. I care more about our people, Georgians, than, raising a lot of money from people that are gonna tell me what to do when I get in office.

CLAY: Joe Biden said — in fact, you just referenced that primary turnout — that what you guys had passed in Georgia was Jim Crow 2.0. You referenced Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, but also Coke and Delta teed off, two businesses that are based in the Atlanta area. Have any of those CEOs reached back out to you and said, “Hey, you know what? You were right, election turnout is actually grown, you’ve strengthened the security for voting now in Georgia,” or are they just pretending they never made the statements that they did?

GOV. KEMP: (chuckles) Well, I think they’re just keeping their head down. But I’m more focused on what people in Georgia think, and they know that I was truthful to them over one year ago, explaining what we did in the bill, and they know that even more now after seeing the record turnout and it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat here. The folks that were criticizing me, neither one of them can vote here. So I’m not too worried about what they think. I’m worried about putting Georgians first.

That’s what I campaigned on in 2018. It’s what I’ve been doing every single day that I’ve been governor of this great state. It’s what I want to continue to do in the future which is why Marty and the girls and I are out there working so hard. We are big believers in our state. I believe our best days are ahead despite the just horrific agenda the Biden administration that has turned our country upside down in a year and a half. I’m still very optimistic.

We’re seeing great economic growth. I just left a groundbreaking from a metal recycling company, first of the kind in the United States. It’s a German-based company. They’re investing over $400 million in the Augusta area. They have a little golf tournament down there, by the way, and it’s just another great opportunity to put hardworking people to work. But that company’s gonna grow over the next decade and it’s gonna give their kids and their grandkids opportunities. And that’s what this is all about.

BUCK: Governor Kemp, I saw that the announcement came out that Atlanta is gonna be a host site for the 2026 World Cup. How excited are you for that being brought to your state and what that will mean a few hours’ time?

GOV. KEMP: Well, it’s gonna be incredible, and I said this last night when we were at the press conference with Mayor Dickens and the whole state, Chamber of Commerce team, all the conventional and visitors bureau’s folks and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and a lot of other folks that worked on this, really a state-local partnership. This is gonna be incredible, and it’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact that’s gonna be great for small business owners. You know, we’d love to get… (garbled cell)

BUCK: Oops.

CLAY: I think we may have lost the governor there. But this is a big deal. They’ve got the World Cup. I was gonna ask him… I’m gonna down in Atlanta doing our show next week, Buck, and the Braves, I believe, have won 14 games in a row. I’m not sure they’re ever gonna lose again. But that was Governor Brian Kemp. Need to be out there supporting. We got a monster audience all over Georgia. He needs to beat Stacey Abrams — and, by the way, Herschel Walker needs to beat the Reverend Raphael Warnock in that Senate race too.