Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s name has been included in conversations about potential Republican presidential candidates. He has been a successful governor and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2022.

Kemp won re-election by a wider margin in 2022 than he did in 2018. Both times he defeated Stacey Abrams. She didn’t even bother to declare herself the governor, not Kemp, in 2022. Abrams is a Democrat so her refusal to accept the election results in 2018 didn’t result in an indictment from a grand jury.

Governor Kemp was a guest at Erick Erickson’s big conservative event in Atlanta recently, The Gathering. He was on stage with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. The Ruthless Podcast taped an episode at The Gathering and it was then that the hosts invited Kemp to be a “celebrity guest picker” during their pre-debate podcast in Milwaukee. It mimics the ESPN College Football Game Day feature.

Kemp went to Milwaukee for the RNC debate Wednesday night and appeared on the Ruthless Podcast. The governor brought gifts to his hosts – two bags of pork rinds from Rodney Scott’s and a package of his family’s venison sticks.

The real purpose of his trip to Milwaukee, according to a Kemp advisor, was to deliver a message.

He wanted to make sure to tout the folks who showed up and got up on stage,” an adviser explained.

“We just have to have a candidate that can win,” Kemp said on the podcast. “I think everybody in that room’s got a shot to catch lightning in a bottle.”

Kemp told the podcast’s hosts that he was friends with all the candidates and was able to text most of them to wish them well in the debate. Kemp labeled Trump as a loser for not showing up to debate, no matter how far ahead he is in most polls. He said he was ahead in polls during his last campaign but he continued to debate. It’s what voters expect, he said. They want to see and hear the candidates.

Kemp’s successes in Georgia include opposing face mask mandates and stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. He prohibited towns from implementing stricter public health measures than the state as a whole. His relationship with Trump went sideways after the 2020 presidential election. Kemp followed state law to certify the election results despite Trump’s claims of election fraud. Trump supported Kemp’s primary opponent, Sonny Perdue.

Also in Milwaukee was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump campaign surrogate. She is vying to be Trump’s vice presidential choice if he wins the Republican nomination. She found as many microphones as possible to stump for Trump. She declared him the winner in absentia of the debate. As it is in other states, there is a rift among factions in the state Republican Party. Taylor Greene was angry that she was denied access to the spin room at Fiserv Forum, though she was told in advance that surrogates wouldn’t be allowed in the room if the candidate didn’t participate. So, she did some name-calling toward the other candidates, calling them Trump wannabes, political has-beens, and worse. Trump’s surrogates are very Trumpian.

“The debate tonight was so disappointing,” she said on Right Side Broadcasting Network. “I felt like we were sliding backward in the Republican Party. It felt like it was going back to the Bush Republican Party where we love to go fight foreign wars and we don’t want to say bad things about anyone.”

Kemp is right – Republicans have to choose a candidate that can win in 2024. We have a country to save. Joe Biden and his administration have to be kicked to the curb. Kemp said he will support the Republican nominee. That’s more than Trump is willing to do, at least so far.