In a speech that lasted more than an hour, Former President Donald Trump continued to repeat false election fraud claims and attack Republican officials in Georgia.
"Brian Kemp is a turncoat, he's a coward, and he's a complete and total disaster," Trump told the crowd at the Banks County Dragway. "When we needed help, he wasn't there for this country."
He again raised objections to the mailing of absentee ballot applications in 2020 and the use of ballot drop boxes, both of which he said: "paved the way for a massive election fraud." He also accused Kemp of gutting the election reforms passed by the legislature in 2021.
"If Brian Kemp is renominated, he will go down in flames at the ballot box," Trump declared. "Stacey will steal it from him and humiliate him just like she brazenly stole the Georgia election from right under his nose in 2020."
He also argued that if Kemp captures the nomination, it could negatively affect other candidates he's endorsed, specifically Herschel Walker.
"A vote for Brian Kemp, RINO, is a vote for a Democrat senator who shouldn't be in the Senate," Trump explained. "A vote for David Perdue is a vote to save Georgia, and really it's a vote for this country because we have to have honest elections."
The state conducted three audits of the 2020 election results in Georgia, and each time the results upheld Joe Biden's victory.
Still, these facts didn't stop conservative lawyer John Gordon, who is running to unseat incumbent Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr from promising an investigation if he's elected. "We will expose the truth, and we will hold the people responsible," Gordon said to thunderous applause from the crowd.
At one point, attendees chanted, "lock him up!" as a dig at Gov. Kemp.
For his part, Kemp has tried to stay out of it as much as possible. "I'm not worried about what other people outside the state are saying; I can't control what the former president says," Kemp told reporters during a Gainesville campaign stop in February. "I'm focused on what Georgians want and what they need."
According to many of the speakers on Saturday, the political future of Georgia and the nation is on the line.
"All eyes will be on Georgia this year," said Burt Jones, Trump's candidate for Lt. Governor. "If we don't have a red wave, it doesn't play well for us to put Donald Trump back in the White House in 2024."
"Georgia is not a blue state, Georgia is not a purple state, Georgia is a deep, deep red state," Congressman Andrew Clyde (Ga-9) told the raucous crowd.
Attendees heard from U.S. Senate Candidate Herschel Walker, who described himself as a "warrior" and used the football analogy of "put me in coach" to articulate his desire to defeat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.
While the crowds began to leave even before the end of Trump's speech, some arrived early Saturday morning to be there.
"You could have a tornado touchdown, and I would not miss this," said Joan Ditullo from Cumming.
Diane McGuire, who brought a snack and a folding chair, told AccessWDUN, "I just had ankle replacement surgery, and I was not going to miss this."
