Georgia

How Trump and Georgia's Republican governor made peace, helped by allies anxious about the election

Published

2 hours ago

August 30, 2024

How Trump and Georgia's Republican governor made peace, helped by allies anxious about the election

ATLANTA (AP) — The effort to make the peace between Donald Trump and Georgia’s powerful Republican governor began in a sprawling neo-Victorian mansion in the exclusive Atlanta enclave of Buckhead.

It was at an Aug. 7 fundraiser hosted by former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler that fellow Republican Lindsey Graham approached Gov. Brian Kemp. Graham, the South Carolina senator and longtime confidant of the former president, was already planning to attend the fundraiser.

Now, Graham had a renewed purpose: to try to ease years of tensions between Trump and Kemp that endangered the GOP’s chances in a crucial 2024 battleground.

Graham and Kemp met privately at Loeffler’s house. And over the coming weeks, say Graham and others familiar with the matter, allies of both men arranged the two-part détente that played out publicly last Thursday to the surprise of many political watchers.

First, Kemp did an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity — another Trump ally — in which he said, “We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.” Moments later, Trump went on his social media site to praise Kemp for his “help and support.”

A true alignment, if it lasts, could benefit both men: Trump may need the help of Kemp’s renowned political operation to win back Georgia in a tightly contested race with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, while Kemp wants to be in the good graces of Trump supporters for a future run at the U.S. Senate or the presidency in 2028. Kemp attended a fundraiser for Trump on Thursday and could join more campaign events with less than 70 days before Election Day.

Trump still argues falsely that he won Georgia based on unproven and debunked claims of voter fraud, something he brings up consistently on the campaign trail. And Kemp, who refused to stop the certification of Trump’s loss four years ago, has repeatedly pushed him to move on.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions about what happened but pointed back to his post on Truth Social in which he says about Georgia, “A win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country.”

Days before the fundraiser at Loeffler’s house, Trump mocked Kemp and his wife, Marty, at a packed rally in Atlanta. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Graham described what he told Trump afterward.

“You’re not going to win Georgia this way,” Graham said. “And Georgia is yours to lose.”

How a meeting in Buckhead launched the détente

Graham was playing the diplomat.

Six days earlier, Trump had railed for 10 minutes against Kemp during the Atlanta campaign rally for not supporting his false theories of election fraud and blamed the governor for not stopping a local district attorney from prosecuting him and others for their efforts to overturn the election results after his loss in the state four years ago.

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said of the second-term Kemp, who won reelection in 2022 after soundly beating Trump’s handpicked Republican challenger, David Perdue, in the GOP primary. “Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”

Trump also criticized Marty Kemp, who had said in April she would write in her husband’s name on her ballot in November.

What to know about the 2024 Election

Kemp shot back, posting on X, “My focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats — not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.”

“You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it,” Kemp’s post concluded.

Graham, in an interview, said he talked to the campaign after that attack and remembers saying, “There’s no excuse for this.”

At Loeffler’s mansion, Graham, Gov. Kemp and Marty Kemp met privately and Graham also spoke to some of the governor’s top staff about moving past the tensions that had simmered since the 2020 election. Their discussions were detailed by Graham and another person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the private conversation.

Adding urgency to the talks was Harris’ entry into the race. Georgia has become newly competitive with President Joe Biden’s departure from the race and a resulting wave of Democratic enthusiasm. Republicans are worried Harris, who is running to become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to serve as president, has energized people of color and younger voters in ways that Biden couldn’t.

Kemp told Graham that he would continue supporting the former president, even if he didn’t appreciate Trump’s rally comments. Graham tried to focus on shifting the Trump-Kemp relationship into a “more positive direction,” one of the people familiar with the conversation said.

That meeting began the process over the next two weeks. Others who spoke to Kemp included Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.

“The way that I approached my conversation with him was: ‘I’m not going to convince you that you should change your mind on the president in the same way that I’m not going to convince the president that he should change his mind on you. But you guys agree on 90% of the things. You can put whatever personal differences aside,’” Vance told NBC News. “And I think there were probably 150 people delivering that message to both the president and Brian Kemp, and I’m glad that (Kemp) got to a good place, but I don’t claim any responsibility or credit for it.”

Graham does. He said he consulted with Trump about the message praising Kemp. And he and others worked to have Kemp deliver his praise in a strategic venue.

“We worked to get Kemp on Hannity where we know Trump would see it,” Graham said.

The path forward

Cody Hall, who leads Kemp’s political organization, confirmed the governor attended a fundraiser for Trump on Thursday.

Hall said Kemp’s political organization, Hardworking Georgians, is working for Trump and the Republican ticket in a number of competitive state House districts, mostly in the Atlanta suburbs. Hall said the organization hasn’t expanded statewide in part because it doesn’t have the money needed for such an effort.

“But plans can change,” Hall said.

At least one close Kemp backer, Alec Poitevint, said he began hearing that Trump and Kemp were patching things up days before Kemp went on Fox. Poitevint is a rare Republican who has maintained good relations with both Kemp and the Trumpier parts of the Georgia state party. Despite his support of Kemp, the Trump-dominated Georgia party elected Poitevint as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

“I had felt earlier that things were in motion,” he said this week. “Gov. Kemp and Trump are both very popular in Georgia.”

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the fundraiser where Graham and Kemp met was on Aug. 7, not Aug. 9.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

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Georgia

Georgia, Ohio St. open as CFP betting favorites

Published

9 hours ago

August 30, 2024

Press Room

Georgia, Ohio St. open as CFP betting favorites

David Purdum, ESPN Staff WriterAug 29, 2024, 02:21 PM ET
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- Joined ESPN in 2014
- Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

A new college football season, featuring widespread conference realignment and an expanded playoff, has a familiar look to it at sportsbooks, with perennial powers from the SEC and Big Ten sitting atop the odds to win the national championship.

Georgia and Ohio State have separated themselves from the pack as the consensus national title favorites ahead of the season. The Bulldogs are +300 at ESPN BET, followed closely by the Buckeyes at +325. Oregon (+700) and Texas (+900) are the only other teams with odds shorter than +1000.

Georgia and Ohio State account for nearly 50% of the bets that have been placed on ESPN BET’s title odds and are among eight teams that are odds-on favorites to qualify for this season’s 12-team playoff. Oregon (-350), Texas (-240), Notre Dame (-170), Penn State (-150), Ole Miss (-140) and Alabama (-115) also are odds-on favorites to reach the playoff at ESPN BET.

“All of our most popular teams to make the playoffs are pretty much exclusively in the SEC,” John Murray, executive director of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, told ESPN.

Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas A&M were among the teams that have attracted the most interest from bettors to make the playoffs, Murray added.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel (+600) is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Gabriel moved ahead of Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (+850) and into the role of Heisman favorite in July. In the last 15 years, the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite has won only once (Marcus Mariota in 2014), according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“We definitely don’t want to see Dillon Gabriel win the Heisman Trophy,” Murray said. “That’s a concern.”

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Georgia

Former Georgia Football Running Back Kendall Milton Picked up by Cincinnati Bengals

Published

18 hours ago

August 29, 2024

Press Room

Former Georgia Football Running Back Kendall Milton Picked up by Cincinnati Bengals

Former Georgia running back Kendall Milton has been picked up by the Cincinnati Bengals after his initial stint with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Just like college football, the NFL regular season is starting to creep up and NFL organizations are making their final roster moves before games start being played. Preseason wrapped up this past weekend and teams began announcing which players were waived from the roster. Former Georgia running back Kendall Milton unfortunately was one of them as the Philadelphia Eagles released him from the roster, but a new NFL team has picked up the former Bulldog.

On Thursday it was announced that the Cincinnati Bengals had picked up Milton to join the practice squad. Cincinnati selected former Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims in the first round of this year’s NFL draft and now Milton will be reuniting with his former teammate.

Milton had some shining moments with the Eagles during the preseason. He did what he did best as a Bulldog by methodically picking up solid yards with each and every carry he earned. In his first game, he finished his game with nine carries for 39 yards while averaging 4.3 yards per carry. He had the most carries and rushing yards in the entire football game.

Georgia had numerous players waived by NFL teams this week and it can be assumed that Milton will not be the only former Bulldog that finds a new home in the professional football league.

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Georgia Southern and The Sack Company Introduce On-Field Logo Sponsorship on Evans Family Field at Allen E. Paulson Stadium

Published

1 day ago

August 29, 2024

Press Room

Partnership Realizes a Historic Moment for Eagles Athletics

Statesboro, GA (Aug. 29, 2024) — A groundbreaking partnership between Georgia Southern University, the Sack Company and Learfield’s Georgia Southern Sports Properties was announced today, making it one of the first college athletics programs to feature an on-field logo during regular-season football games. This collaboration highlights Georgia Southern’s commitment to excellence while providing its new partner, the Sack Company, a unique opportunity to connect with Eagles fans. The Sack Company logo will be featured on both 25-yard lines on Evans Family Field at Allen E. Paulson Stadium starting August 31^st when the Eagles kick off their football season at home against Boise State.

“We are ecstatic to partner with the Sack Company on this first-of-its-kind opportunity. As a new partner, they are supporting Eagles Athletics and leaning into the community in an incredible way,” said Jared Benko, Director of Athletics at Georgia Southern. “Our partnership demonstrates an innovative way to deliver high impact branding and value for the Sack Company while ensuring an incredible environment for our fans.”

In addition to on-field visibility and other in-venue signage, the Sack Company will benefit from extensive exposure through television broadcasts, social and digital platforms. The Sack Company will also engage the community year-round through a wide variety of sponsorship programs including additional branding at Allen E. Paulson Stadium, as the presenting sponsor of men’s basketball, and as the presenting sponsor of baseball with branding on the home team dugout.

“We are proud to build upon our partnership with Georgia Southern and have a longstanding tradition of growth by helping to build over 15 different buildings on campus over the years. This is an exciting evolution of our commitment to the university, and we are thrilled to support Georgia Southern Athletics and be part of this historic opportunity to feature the Sack Company logos on the field at Paulson Stadium,” said Paul Roesel, President and Chairman of the Sack Company.

“We are thrilled to be at the forefront of the changing landscape of college athletics with our partners at Georgia Southern,” said Kim Damron, President of Learfield Sports Properties. “Jared and his team have shown exemplary leadership throughout this process and are dedicated to achieving long-lasting success for their athletics programs and the community.”

Georgia Southern Sports Properties, the locally based team of Learfield—the media and technology company powering college sports – is the exclusive multimedia rights holder for Georgia Southern Athletics and handles all sponsorships, in-venue signage, and advertising on behalf of the Georgia Southern.

About Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution founded in 1906, offers approximately 155 degree programs serving more than 28,000 students through 10 colleges on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and online instruction. Georgia Southern is a member of the Sun Belt Conference for athletics and sponsors 17 NCAA Division varsity sports with over 450 student-athletes competing for the Eagles. Visit GSEagles.com for more information on the department and GSEagles.com/tickets to purchase tickets.

About The Sack Company
Sack has built their company primarily on heavy commercial and industrial construction and has the in-house ability to perform electrical, electrical controls and instrumentation, mechanical, piping, plumbing, HVAC work, fire sprinkler, machinery placement and millwright work. They provide construction services for a variety of General Contractors throughout the southeastern U.S., and will travel more extensively around the U.S. and abroad for our industrial customers.

About Learfield
Learfield is the leading media and technology company powering college athletics. Through its digital and physical platforms, Learfield owns and leverages a deep data set and relationships in the industry to drive revenue, growth, brand awareness, and fan engagement for brands, sports, and entertainment properties. With ties to over 1,200 collegiate institutions and over 12,000 local and national brand partners, Learfield’s presence in college sports and live events delivers influence and maximizes reach to target audiences. With solutions for a 365-day, 24/7 fan experience, Learfield enables schools and brands to connect with fans through licensed merchandise, game ticketing, donor identification for athletic programs, exclusive custom content, innovative marketing initiatives, NIL solutions, and advanced digital platforms. Since 2008, it has served as title sponsor for the acclaimed Learfield Directors’ Cup, supporting athletic departments across all divisions.

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