Gov. Brian Kemp

ATLANTA – A new poll of likely Republican primary voters comes as good news to Gov. Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker.

Kemp is leading former U.S. Sen. David Perdue 49.1% to 39.5%, according to a survey of 1,072 likely GOP primary voters conducted Feb. 11 through Feb. 13 by Atlanta-based Trafalgar Group.

Two other Republican gubernatorial candidates were polling in the low single digits.

Meanwhile, Walker continues to hold a huge lead in his bid to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in November. The University of Georgia football icon was the choice of 69.9% of those surveyed.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black was running a distant second at 6.1%, according to the Trafalgar poll. Support for two other candidates fell below 3%.

For Perdue, the silver lining in the survey is that 31.2% of likely Republican voters who responded to the poll said they didn’t know Perdue has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Perdue has made Trump’s support a key campaign pitch. His first TV ad featured Trump on camera urging voters to support Perdue in the May 24 GOP primary.

The poll’s margin of error was 2.99%.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.