Report: Brian Kemp to Appear with Donald Trump in Georgia in Wake of Hurricane Helene

By Nick Gilbertson

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) is reportedly expected to appear with President Donald Trump when he visits Georgia on Friday in the wake of Hurrican Helene.

• ABC News campaign reporter Lalee Ibssa first reported Thursday that sources familiar with the plans tell her and her colleague Kelsey Walsh that Kemp will join the 45th president.

  “Gov. Brian Kemp and former President Donald Trump are expected to appear together tomorrow in Georgia as Trump makes his second stop this week to survey Hurricane Helene’s impact on the state,” Ibssa wrote in a post on X.

  While Trump and Kemp have had their differences, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced on Fox News in August that Kemp was ready to put his “political machine” behind Trump in the Peach State to help him win it in November.

  According to Graham, those comments came at a National Republican Senatorial Committee fundraiser that month, where Kemp said Vice President Kamala Harris “is a disaster for Georgia.”

  Kemp officially announced his support for Trump while talking with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on the eponymously named program Hannity later in the month.

  “We got to win from the top of the ticket on down. I’ve been saying consistently for a long time, we cannot afford another four years of  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and I think Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be even worse,” Kemp said.

  “So we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House,” he added.

  Trump expressed his gratitude for Kemp’s support the same night.

  “Thank you to #BrianKempGA for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

  “I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added.

  Georgia is one of seven swing states that will decide the outcome of the election. The canidate who has won Georgia in each of the past two presidential elections went on to win the electoral college.

  Trump carried Georgia by five points in 2016, and it went to President Joe Biden by just .23 percent in 2020.