As Trump watches, Georgia Republicans brace for a bruising Senate primary

During a small spring dinner at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, the pressure campaign to get Georgia Gov.

During a small spring dinner at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, the pressure campaign to get Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to run for the Senate was the subject of uneasy punch lines.

Kemp, a popular Republican governor with a prebuilt fundraising machine, was the top recruit of national Republican organizations looking to snag a primary field-clearing candidate to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in a state that will present one of the most challenging and expensive races of the 2026 midterms.

“They are calling the wrong Kemp,” joked Marty Kemp, the governor’s wife and an influential voice in his political decision-making, according to two Georgia Republicans, who, like others, spoke under condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. The comment was made in jest: Kemp himself was always the hardest one to sell on the idea of running for the Senate, but it underscores the intensity of the push to get Kemp in the race.

Kemp ultimately announced in May that he would not run for the Senate. But he is very much involved in the race — and in the fact that it remains one of the few unsettled primaries Senate Republicans have on the board ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Republicans led by President Donald Trump have worked to head off primaries in key Senate races as the GOP defends its 53-47 majority next year. Trump has anointed preferred candidates in Michigan, a top Republican target, and in North Carolina and Iowa, two seats the party is defending. While Trump has not yet weighed in on the New Hampshire Senate race, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, is backing former Sen. John Sununu.