Kemp joins McConnell to help push Herschel Walker over finish line

Sen. Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) has tapped Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for helping with the state’s upcoming Senate runoff elections, hoping his strong performance over Democrat challenger Stacey Abrams will transfer over to GOP Senate Candidate Herschel Walker.

Kemp will transfer his door-knocking, data analytics, phone-banking and micro-targeting program to the Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned super PAC that is supporting Walker, according to an agreement reported by Politico.

“Gov. Kemp wrote the playbook for how to win big in Georgia, and we are thrilled to partner with his top-notch team to elect Herschel Walker to the Senate,” Steven Law, Senate Leadership Fund’s president, told Politico.

“As we learned in 2020, Republican turnout is essential for victory in a runoff election, and we are leaving no stone unturned – preparing a ground assault to partner with the coming air war,” he added, referring to how Republicans lost their Senate majority

Walker will face off with Democrat Sen. Rachael Warnock again after both succeeded in clinching 50% of the vote as required under Georgia law, while Kemp trounced Abrams by almost 8 points.

The successful Georgia governor’s get-out-the-vote machine is considered one of the GOP’s most powerful state operations.

“The governor ran a gauntlet this year, prevailing over a Donald Trump-backed primary opponent by a lopsided margin before comfortably defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams in the general election,” wrote Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.

The move could also be a consolidation between factions opposed to former President Donald Trump, who blasted Georgia officials for refusing to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state.

Georgia’s top election official, Republican Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger, beat his Democrat midterm challenger by a larger margin than Kemp’s over Abrams.

This is the first time the McConnell-aligned PAC has funded a ground game this election cycle.

The $2 million-plus effort will be run by Kemp’s senior advisors and staffed by over 100 field workers from the governor’s midterm campaign.