Trump secures Georgia win for Brian Kemp, who wants to “round up" illegals in his pickup truck

The power of Donald Trump's endorsement was in evidence again Tuesday when Brian Kemp overcame a deficit to win the Republican nomination for Georgia governor.

In the May primary, Kemp was beaten by Casey Cagle by 10 points — a sizable defeat but not enough to miss out on a runoff. Yet thanks to last week’s Twitter endorsement from Trump, allied to support from Vice President Mike Pence and a timely leaked audio featuring his opponent criticizing the election as a race to the bottom, Kemp romped to victory with 69 percent of the vote.

Though both Cagle and Kemp are pro-Trump Republicans, the race effectively came down to whomever positioned themselves more closely with Trump’s hardcore base.

Or, as Cagle himself put it in the recording leaked by Kemp’s campaign, the election was about “who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest.”

That turned out to be Kemp.

A self-confessed “politically incorrect conservative,” Georgia’s secretary of state claimed in a campaign ad that he was willing to use his own pickup truck to “round up criminal illegals,” describing it as “an immigration bus.”

Kemp had previously run a campaign ad where he jokingly pointed a shotgun at a teenage boy who wanted to date his daughter.

Despite these controversial opinions — or because of them — Trump picked Kemp, announcing his decision on Twitter:

Trump and Pence both reiterated their support for Kemp Tuesday, urging voters to pick the 55-year-old to face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who could become the country’s first black female governor.

The governor’s race in Georgia will be among the most closely watched come November’s midterms, as it will be a test of whether traditionally red Georgia is turning from a GOP stronghold into a swing state.

Elsewhere in the state, gun-control advocate Lucy McBath won a runoff against businessman Kevin Abel to secure the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

McBath entered politics after her 17-year-old son was shot dead at a Florida gas station by a man complaining about loud music.

McBath will face incumbent Rep. Karen Handel in November’s election, after Handel won a special election against Democrat Jon Ossoff last year, in what became the most expensive House race in U.S. history.

Cover image: Secretary of State Brian Kemp addresses the audience and declares victory during an election watch party on July 24, 2018 in Athens, Georgia. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)