Trump gets wish in Georgia, sparks ‘a political civil war’ – WHIO TV 7 and WHIO

ATLANTA — (AP) — Less than a year after losing the presidency, Donald Trump has set out to reshape the GOP in his image across the nation’s top political battlegrounds, sparking bitter primary battles that will force candidates and voters to decide how much to embrace Trump and his grievances.

But nowhere is his quest more consequential than Georgia.

Trump has inspired a slate of loyalists to seek statewide office in the Southern swing state, and as of Monday, that group included former Republican Sen. David Perdue, who formally launched a challenge against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The move marked a rare, serious primary threat to a sitting governor, bucking the wishes of GOP leaders in Washington and ensuring months of Republican infighting in a state where the party is trying to restore its dominance.

“It is going to be a political civil war here in Georgia,” current Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican and frequent Trump critic who is not running for reelection, told The Associated Press. “It’s all avoidable if we just act like adults and move on. But that’s not reality at this point.”

It’s not just Georgia. Tension between Trump and what’s left of the Republican establishment is defining primaries for Senate and governor across dozens of states — including Arizona, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania — months before the first ballots are cast next spring and summer. With President Joe Biden’s approval numbers sagging, political headwinds from Washington suggest that Republicans could make major political gains in 2022 — if the GOP can get out of its own way.

Trump’s interest in a third presidential bid in 2024 ensures he will the face of the Republican Party for the foreseeable future.

Look no further for a cautionary tale than Georgia, an evolving swing state where demographic shifts of recent years have given Democrats a path to power. Biden narrowly defeated Trump here last fall and, after Trump falsely claimed widespread election fraud, Democrats seized victory in two Senate runoff elections in January that gave them control of the Senate.

Ever since, the former president has battered the state officials who certified the election results — Kemp chief among them — with an fierce torrent of political attacks.

Trump’s chief problem with Kemp has little to do with substantive policy; he’s working to oust the governor simply because he refused to support Trump’s fight to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump on Monday cheered the “highly respected” Purdue’s decision to enter the governor’s race, while attacking Kemp — a staunch conservative by any measure — as a fake Republican.

“I can’t imagine that Brian Kemp, who has hurt election integrity in Georgia so badly, can do well at the ballot box (unless the election is rigged, of course),” Trump said in a statement, referring to baseless claims of election fraud.

Trump also boosted Republican former football star Herschel Walker in the GOP’s push to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, betting on an untested and unvetted professional athlete in a Republican primary against state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. He is also backing…