Patricia Murphy: In Senate battle, Kemp’s nod may matter more than Trump’s

When I interviewed the six-term congressman after that, he repeated that label over and over. “We need a MAGA warrior. And I have been that for 10 and a half years now that I’ve been in Congress and have proven that,” he said.

On Monday, Insurance Commissioner John King was next with a launch video of his own. Along with mentioning that he was born in Mexico and served as an Atlanta police officer and Army general, King framed his Senate candidacy almost entirely as a way to support Trump.

“President Trump got sent to Washington, D.C., to solve some very big problems,” King said. “He needs help, and I’m asking for your support to go help President Trump solve these incredibly big problems.”

Even potential candidates who aren’t in the race yet are chiming in from the sidelines. On the same day Carter launched his “MAGA Warrior” spot, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins posted a video of his own, complete with Trump praising him and his great head of hair. Then, taking a clear swipe at Carter, Collins wrote, “True warriors don’t just show up when it’s easy. I’ve been on the road for MAGA since 2016 and will never let off the gas.”

It’s possible that the governor and the president may end up endorsing the same candidate against Ossoff. And as my colleague Greg Bluestein reported this week, Kemp quietly went to Washington over the weekend to meet with Trump to avoid the kind of messy primaries Trump pushed in Georgia in 2022, including against Kemp himself. But if the two leaders can’t agree, Kemp’s endorsement will be the real prize in the contest.

While the president has been known to endorse multiple candidates in the same GOP primary, as he did with a double endorsement in the Arizona governor’s race last week, a Kemp endorsement in a primary has been far harder to come by over the years. And while Trump has a history of ghosting faltering campaigns, including in Georgia, a nod from the governor in 2026 would mean not just his approval but also potential support from his donor base and his leadership committee, as well as insight into the winning Kemp playbook.

The irony of the race for Trump’s attention in Georgia right now is that the candidates are so much more interesting, and potentially more electable statewide, than the MAGA men they’re portraying on social media.

In my interview with Carter, he described a vivid memory from his childhood — his own father’s pride at getting a job at a paper mill in Savannah. Having grown up the son of a sharecropper, Carter’s father was so excited about his new job that he drove around town yelling, “I got a job at Union Camp!” That story helps you understand Carter’s motivations more than his very MAGA bill to rename the island of Greenland, “Red, White and Blueland.”

And once King got past the required MAGA talking points about “keeping boys out of girls sports,” he talked about growing up in Mexico and fighting cartels as the Doraville police chief. He was emotional describing the six soldiers he lost in Iraq under his command and the 97 soldiers who were wounded.

“I never will be willing to do something that’s going to embarrass them for having served alongside me,” he said. “That is where my compass is at.”

Even Collins is more than the magnificent, mulleted MAGA fighter he presents on social media. Last year, Democrats described Collins quietly approaching them with his legislation, the Laken Riley Act, in an effort to win bipartisan support for the bill, which broadens federal authority to detain migrants accused of crimes. After making changes to the text to get consensus, the bill passed this year with Democratic support.

Getting Trump’s nod may come down to who can prove they’re most loyal to the president, but Kemp’s decision will focus on much more, including who he thinks has the best chance to defeat Ossoff a year and a half from now.

It’s also worth remembering that Kemp appointed King to his current job as insurance commissioner, but his history with other possible contenders isn’t so simple. That’s especially true when it comes to Kemp’s 2022 reelection campaign.

That was the year Collins donated $1,000 to former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s primary campaign against Kemp. Carter, meanwhile, campaigned with Perdue in the weeks leading up to the heated primary, even after he endorsed Kemp and then switched to be neutral in the race.

During our interview, Carter acknowledged that he had talked to Kemp before he jumped into the Senate race and would like the governor’s endorsement, just like he wants Trump’s.

“I’ve talked to Gov. Kemp and had a great conversation with him,” Carter said. “We were able to air out a couple of things that we needed to.”

The governor isn’t known to always hold grudges; just look at his endorsement of Collins against former Democrat Vernon Jones in 2022 and Trump in 2024. But his decision about whether and who to endorse in the Senate race could decide the direction of the campaign he decided not to run himself.