“You have to appreciate that Trump’s beef with Kemp didn’t start in late 2020. The Georgian managed to annoy his president by failing to follow his erratic lead on reopening businesses in April of 2020. Before that, in late 2019, Kemp refused to take Trump’s advice on an appointee to an open U.S. Senate seat. Clearly Trump considered these acts of ingratitude, certain as he was that his endorsement of Kemp before a 2018 Republican gubernatorial runoff was the only reason the governor was the governor. But Trump is struggling to get someone formidable to run against Kemp in the 2022 Republican primary. Yes, the suddenly Trump-y former Democrat Vernon Jones is in the race, with the former president’s blessing (if not his endorsement, so far). But putting aside the issues with Trump, Kemp is a whole lot closer to the Georgia GOP’s idea of a governor than a Black ex-Democrat who was pro-choice not long ago and has quite a bit of baggage (including a rape allegation he refuted by claiming a consensus three-way sexual encounter).”

“The incumbent made a lot of MAGA hay signing and then defending the recent voter suppression law, and generally returning to the ‘owning the libs’ demeanor he displayed when running as a ‘politically incorrect conservative’ in 2018. At the same state GOP convention that censured Raffensperger, Kemp was met by some boos, but some cheers, too, and no one even proposed any sanction of him for letting down Trump in the election. With time running down before the 2022 cycle gets fully underway, Trump has to be frustrated with the potentially strong challengers to Kemp who have failed to take up his offer of support He was promoting former congressman Doug Collins as a Kemp-beater back in December. But Collins, reportedly exhausted from his unsuccessful 2020 Senate race (he finished third in the special election field to finish Johnny Isakson’s term, behind Loeffler and the eventual winner Raphael Warnock), chose to announce he wouldn’t be running for any office in 2022” – New York Magazine.