Perry – Brian Kemp's bus tour brought him Thursday to the scene of one of Georgia's more controversial state investments: The Go Fish Center, a pet project of former Gov. Sonny Perdue that's struggled with poor attendance.
That wasn’t the only aqua-related stop by Kemp, as his November contest against Democrat Stacey Abrams inches nearer. He held a fish fry in Rhine, where he drew about 250 supporters in a town with a population of around 400.
"Let people know that we took the time to come to this community," Kemp said. "We want Georgians to decide this election, not Nancy Pelosi. Not Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed Abrams yesterday."
That continued a favorite Kemp theme of slamming the prominent national support Abrams attracted along his 27-stop tour, a talking point that has resonated with some of his supporters. (You can find a detailed AJC story about that strategy here.)
"We are battling a career politician who's an extreme liberal. She'd rather be in California than Ocilla but don't worry, she sent her Democratic tracker," Kemp said, pointing out an operative whose been shadowing his campaign.
“They’ve been trolling us all week on our bus tour while my opponent has been up in New Jersey, out in San Francisco. That’s who’s funding this.”
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His opponent, Stacey Abrams, was indeed set to be in San Francisco on Thursday to raise cash from Bay Area donors.
But her campaign sought to step up the pressure on Kemp back in Atlanta by launching a “Business Leaders for Abrams” organization.
The founding members include restaurateurs, corporate executives and film industry officials who touted Abrams' support for expanding Medicaid and her $10 million small-business financing program – and blasted Brian Kemp for supporting a "religious liberty" measure.
Andrew Feiler, an artist and film industry entrepreneur, recalled a group of filmmakers staying at a property he owned who were preparing to leave Georgia in 2016 if Gov. Nathan Deal signed the controversial legislation into law. Although he vetoed the measure, the debate has not subsided.
“This threat is real. We would have lost tenants, and the impact would have ricocheted around the state. This is not an idle threat,” said Feiler.
“We’ve spent two decades building the film industry and RFRA would have directly affected our business,” he added, using the shorthand for the legislation.
The debate over the legislation has become a perennial one in Georgia. Many of its supporters see it as a noncontroversial way to defend against what they view as a siege on Christian values and provide more legal protection to the faith-based.
The opponents, including powerful business boosters and gay rights groups, say religious liberty bills amount to legalized discrimination, and they point to executives from dozens of big-name companies, including Apple, Disney and Time Warner, who threatened boycotts if Georgia adopted such legislation.
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While Brian Kemp has continued to assail Stacey Abrams' out-of-state help – he said in Leesburg she was listening to "socialist billionaires" rather than everyday Georgians – some of his surrogates have given that strategy a twist.
Consider the refrain from U.S. Rep. Austin Scott during a Kemp rally in Adel, where the Republican outlined his detailed healthcare policy for the first time.
He brought up the tense proceedings over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- and then pivoted to a Georgia angle.
“The U.S. Senate has disappointed us in the confirmation process. But in the state of Georgia, the governor gets to pick the people that run the agencies. There’s no confirmation process,” he said.
“There’s no requirement that they be from Georgia or respect our values,” Scott said, adding: “That’s one of the reasons I’m so comfortable with Brian Kemp for governor.”
