Photo: Governor & First Lady Kemp with Josh Powell from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office and former Democratic State Rep. Barbara Massey Reece.  Reece and Kemp were colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is in a comfortable position.  He handily won his reelection campaign against Democrat Stacy Abrams after she failed in a second attempt to take the state’s top job.  Kemp, who is no ally of former President Donald Trump is facing a backlash from some Republicans in Georgia, who side with the former President.  However, Governor Kemp will be noticeably absent from the upcoming statewide Republican Convention.

The rift between most of the state’s elected Republican leadership and the far-right wing of the Georgia GOP, is evident in the fact that the one of the few high-profile statewide elected leaders scheduled to address the state Republican convention this weekend, is Lt. Governor Burt Jones.  At the same time, Governor Kemp’s popularity is high in the state and even gets some favorable ratings from Democrats.  Earlier this year, a whopping 62% of Georgians gave Kemp a favorable job approval rating, and that included one-third of the state’s Democrats. (Source: AJC Poll)

A review of the Chattooga County Republican Party’s social media posts (Chattooga GOP Facebook Page) indicate that the leadership of the local party tends to side with the anti-Kemp faction of the state party.  This, despite the fact, that the governor received over 66% of Chattooga County Republican voter’s votes in the Primary Election last year and almost 84% of the votes in Chattooga County in the General Election.