ATLANTA — The Republican runoff for governor is over and now Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Kemp is preparing to take on Democrat Stacey Abrams in the race for governor.
Channel 2's Richard Elliot got a chance to look at some internal polling from one of the campaigns Tuesday night that showed how much impact President Donald Trump's tweet endorsing Brian Kemp had on the race.
[READ: A minute-by-minute look at the GOP runoff for governor]
Kemp beat Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle 69 percent to 31 percent and won all but two of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Internal campaign data shows Cagle lost because Trump tweeted his endorsement of Kemp. That one tweet flipped that race, giving Kemp a big win.
The president tweeted again Wednesday morning, congratulating Kemp.
Congratulations to Brian Kemp on your very big win in Georgia last night. Wow, 69-30, those are big numbers. Now go win against the open border, crime loving opponent that the Democrats have given you. She is weak on Vets, the Military and the 2nd Amendment. Win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018
Cagle admitted the president’s tweet sank his campaign.
“President Trump is a very powerful man, the most powerful man in the world, and he brought us down,” Cagle said.
Elliot asked Kemp if he expected the president to come to Georgia to campaign for him in the general election.
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"I'll let the president decide what he wants to do, but we'd love to have the president come and campaign. You saw how electric the event was with the vice president the other day," Kemp said.
Kemp will face off against Abrams in November.
Abrams was not available Wednesday for an interview but did tweet out Tuesday evening saying, "Tonight, I have an opponent: Kemp. The race for #gagov may change, but our values never will."
“It’s going to be an election unlike any we’ve seen in a while,” Kennesaw State political expert Kerwin Swint said about the upcoming campaign.
He told Elliot that he expects it to be a tough race, especially for Abrams in what has traditionally been a red state.
“Usually gubernatorial elections are state-focused and local issues predominate. I think this is going to be a nationally focused election,” Swint said.
Because this race will have a national focus, we do expect to see a lot of outside money flowing into the campaigns.
Cox Media Group