(WASHINGTON) — Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to headline a fundraiser for former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in Atlanta on Thursday alongside first lady Marty Kemp and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, multiple sources told ABC News.
It’s a signal of how Kemp is working to reelect Trump despite their public feud, and though Kemp voices his commitment to working to elect the entire Republican ticket, he previously revealed he didn’t vote for Trump during the state’s presidential primary.
Kemp’s anticipated participation in the fundraiser, first reported by ABC News, comes after Trump last week publicly praised the Republican governor after watching an interview he did on FOX News following months of criticizing Kemp and his family for Kemp’s refusal to give in to the former president’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Thank you to #BrianKempGA for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country,” Trump wrote on X last Thursday.
Before the praise, Trump spent much of his last Georgia rally lambasting Kemp for not doing enough to work towards his reelection campaign in the state, even going after Kemp’s wife for previously saying that she would write in Kemp’s name instead of voting for Trump.
“He’s a bad guy, he is a disloyal guy, and he’s a very average governor. Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy…and all he had to do is sign something where the senate would like to look at election integrity,” Trump said at his campaign rally in Atlanta earlier this month.
“Think of the wife. ‘We can never repay you for what you’ve done, sir. We could’ve never won.’ And now she said, two weeks ago, that ‘I will not endorse him because he hasn’t earned my endorsement.’ I haven’t earned her endorsement? I have nothing to do with her,” Trump continued.
The fundraiser, taking form as a cocktail party, was originally scheduled to be headlined by Pompeo, but Kemp and his wife were added as co-headliners after Kemp’s supporters attending the fundraiser invited him and urged him to attend.
A source familiar with how Kemp’s participation in the fundraiser came about told ABC News that multiple governors have expressed that Kemp had a “very supportive tone” of Trump and “getting support to those key states” at a recent Republican Governors Association meeting in Aspen.
“There is a lot of excitement in Georgia knowing that President Trump and Gov. Kemp have agreed to work together as they have in the past to achieve victories that are important for the future of the country and the future of Georgians,” the source said.
The fundraiser is hosted and co-hosted by former Trump State Department official Ulrich Brechbuhl, former Ambs. Duke Buchan and Ed McMullen and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who have all been actively raising money for Trump’s campaign this election cycle.
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