Despite Claims of Independence, Kemp and Trump Are in Lockstep on Extreme Agenda

Governor Brian Kemp closed out day two of his Donald Trump loyalty tour at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last night after mending fences to earn a speaking slot at breakfast in the Georgia Republican delegation hotel, fifty-miles outside of Milwaukee. While Governor Kemp was unwilling to break the law to help Trump overturn the 2020 election, both he and Trump have demonstrated a fondness for pushing extreme, right-wing policies.  

On Monday night, Kemp told CNN that “Republican governors have really tried to take the policy lead over the last several years and the incubators of democracy.” It’s true – Kemp has passed the most extreme elements of Project 2025 in Georgia ever since he was sworn in as governor in 2019.

“Brian Kemp kissing the ring at the Republican National Convention makes a lot of sense considering his record in Georgia is in lockstep with the policy goals outlined in Project 2025,” said DPG Executive Director Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye. “With his dangerous abortion ban, school voucher scam, hostility towards working people and their unions, and willingness to sacrifice the 30,000 new jobs created in Georgia under the Inflation Reduction Act, Kemp is running the exact same out-of-touch playbook that MAGA Republicans are touting at the RNC.”

Georgia’s draconian six-week abortion ban, signed by Kemp in 2019, is a preview of the national abortion ban called for in Project 2025 (p. 455), a product of the far-right Heritage Foundation that is widely reported to be Donald Trump’s roadmap for governing if reelected. 

Kemp prioritized and put significant political capital into passing private school voucher legislation this year — going as far as to say in his January State of the State address that “there are no next years” to pass the legislation. Kemp signed that bill, which siphons public money off to unaccountable private entities, last month. Project 2025 (p. 322) places private school vouchers, rebranded as “education savings accounts,” as the cornerstone of its education policy. 

Project 2025 (p. 466) calls for minimum work requirements to receive Medicaid, the defining element of Brian Kemp’s failed Pathways to Coverage program. Pathways’ failures have been well documented since the program launched last July — most recently by the Associated Press, which noted that work requirements are the critical sticking point preventing the program from functioning effectively.

Despite Georgia being the biggest beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act — over 30,000 jobs directly attributable to the Biden administration’s signature climate and clean-energy domestic policy — Kemp has repeatedly attacked the law. Likewise, Project 2025 (p. 365) has referred to climate change as a hoax and has called for the IRA’s repeal.  

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