If there is a major flaw in comparing what Ducey is up to in Arizona with what Kemp and Tillis pulled off in their respective states, it’s that the anti-Lake forces might have waited too long.
“The difference between Kemp and Tillis is Ducey got on this much later than they did,” said Republican strategist Chuck Warren, who consults on Arizona campaigns, and gave the maximum contribution to both Lake and Robson. (Note: Tillis’s official endorsement of Cawthorn’s opponent came only a few weeks before the primary election, but Tillis’s criticism of Cawthorn began months earlier.)
Unlike Ducey (who faces term limits), Kemp himself was on the ballot in Georgia. And because Trump telegraphed his attempt to seek revenge immediately after losing the November 2020 election, Kemp knew right away that he would have to run an aggressive re-election campaign to survive in 2022. He leveraged all the political capital that comes with being an incumbent governor.
Still, Kemp had the luxury of time. As Politico reported, “By the time Perdue launched his campaign in December [of 2021], he found that Kemp had used the levers of his office to rally the support of state power players and pass legislation that assuaged pro-Trump voters. Kemp had won the backing of many of Perdue’s former longtime advisers, making it difficult for Perdue to build a political operation.”
Read the full article at The Daily Beast.