Vernon Jones is closing the gap with incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the just-opened Republican gubernatorial primary in Georgia, according to a poll obtained by The Hill.
An internal poll commissioned by the Jones campaign and conducted by Remington Research Group shows Kemp with a narrow 39 percent to 35 percent lead over Jones among likely Republican primary voters, with three percentage points generally within the margin of error.
There are indications that there is room for Jones to further expand his support. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they are still undecided. Overall, 55 percent of respondents said they would be willing to consider another candidate, and only 35 percent of those surveyed pledged to support Kemp’s re-election in 2022.
Jones switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in January, and as a former state legislator, he is the first and only prominent Republican to challenge Kemp so far.
Kemp was once seen as a staunch ally of former President Trump (R-Texas), but a rift emerged between the two after he rejected Trump’s request to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election and after the media broke a massive Georgia election mess.
Trump has vowed to mount a challenge to Kemp’s re-election next year, but he has yet to endorse Jones’ campaign.
Polls by the Jones campaign illustrate how much influence Trump may ultimately exert in this race.
Eighty-seven percent of Republican primary voters say they have a favorable opinion of Trump, almost twice as many as those who have a favorable opinion of Kemp (45 percent). The poll shows that with Trump’s presumptive endorsement, Jones would lead Kemp 38 percent to 36 percent.
The poll also found that 43 percent of respondents identified themselves as “Trump Republicans,” while 22 percent identified themselves as “Evangelical Republicans,” 17 percent identified themselves as “Traditional Republicans ” and 4 percent identified as Libertarians.
For many Republican voters in Georgia, they don’t know much about Jones. Nearly half of those surveyed (47 percent) said they had no opinion of him, and then also 33 percent said they had a favorable opinion of him; 20 percent said they had no favorable opinion of him.
The poll was conducted May 1-3 and is based on 1,040 likely voters in Georgia who will vote in the 2022 Republican primary.
It is unclear who else might run in the Republican primary for governor of Georgia.
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