Did a Tweet Elect Brian Kemp?
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 27, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
On July 18th President Donald Trump endorsed Brian Kemp for governor with this tweet: “Brian Kemp is running for governor of the great state of Georgia. The primary is on Tuesday. Brian is tough on crime, strong on the border and illegal immigration. He loves our military and our vets and protects our Second Amendment. I give him my full and total endorsement.”
On the morning of the run-off, the president tweeted again, “Today is the day to vote for Brian Kemp. Will be great for Georgia, full endorsement!”
That’s powerful stuff, but Trump’s tweets did not elect Kemp. If the president lived in Georgia, he probably would’ve voted for Kemp, but even if he lived in Georgia, the president couldn’t elect anyone with his lone vote. Those tweets ignited the Kemp campaign, but Brian Kemp was elected by Georgians who decided voting in the run-off was too important to ignore. Although the run-off election was available as scheduled, 98 percent of registered voters didn’t bother to participate.
Only 585,515 voters decided whose name will be on the Republican ballot for governor this year. That’s astonishing, considering the fact that Georgia has 6,178,600 registered voters. But that’s not the end of the story. 28,793 fewer people voted for lieutenant governor than for governor and 22,890 fewer ballots were cast for secretary of state than for lieutenant governor.If all those folks had continued voting down the ballot, their 51,689 potential votes could’ve reinforced or changed the outcomes of the other races. Unless a recount reveals an error in counting that razor-thin 50/50 vote, Geoff Duncan will be the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Right now, Duncan has 1,730 votes more than Shafer.
Democrats had only one state-wide candidate in the run-off, but that race reflected the same lack of participation. Only 146,689 voters decided that Otha Thornton, Jr. would be the Democrat to challenge current state school superintendent Republican Richard Woods in November. Also, Democrat Lucy McBath will challenge Republican incumbent Karen Handel in congressional district 6 and Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux will challenge Republican incumbent Rob Woodall in District 7.
So, in the July 24 th run-off, state-wide Democrat voters and state-wide Republican voterscombined totaled only 732,204, which is not much more than one percent of Georgia’s registered voters.
I said all that to say this: A minuscule number of people will decide the election in November unless you vote! For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent