As some Republican officials call for cooler talk in the poisonous runoff for governor, the Georgia GOP has scheduled a unity rally after voters decide next week's contest between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
The Thursday evening event will feature the two bitter rivals along with Gov. Nathan Deal, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, House Speaker David Ralston and other Republican elders – each presumably saying the party will unite to defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams in November.
"The stakes in Georgia have never been higher. While our candidates continue to seek the Republican nomination, Stacey Abrams is on the war path to make our state as liberal as California and New York. We can't let that happen," read the note.
“No matter who our Republican nominee is for governor, we must rally together as a united force.”
That doesn't line up with the razor-edged politicking during the race's final stretch. Trailing in the polls and snubbed by President Donald Trump, Cagle crossed what some fellow Republicans view as a point-of-no-return by saying, definitively, at multiple stops that Kemp will lose to Abrams in November.
“There’s no question in my mind. There’s not a poll out there that shows he can win. It’s indicative of the kind of campaign he’s run, and it’s indicative of his record,” Cagle said this week. “There’s no question.”
To drive that point home, the lieutenant governor’s campaign sent a Thursday press release with this blaring headline: “Kemp can’t beat Abrams.”
Georgia Democrats held their unity rally a few days after Abrams trounced her runoff rival, former state Rep. Stacey Evans. Though that race was also heated, Evans endorsed Abrams within minutes of conceding defeat.
The GOP contest has been shaped by vicious internal fighting. A secretly made recording of Cagle by a former Republican candidate for governor rocked the race. And Trump's endorsement of Kemp, days after Deal backed Cagle, has put the lieutenant governor on his heels.
The event is being held at a strategic spot: A hotel in Peachtree Corners, straddling the edge of two competitive U.S. House districts held by U.S. Reps. Karen Handel and Rob Woodall that Democrats have targeted in November.
Read more recent AJC coverage of the race for governor:
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