CUMMING – Former Vice President Mike Pence bolstered Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s case for reelection Tuesday during a Get Out the Vote Rally in downtown Cumming.
“We need Georgia to lead the way to a great American comeback by reelecting Brian Kemp,” Pence told cheering supporters as Kemp stood by his side.
Pence’s appearance with Kemp on the campaign trail Tuesday afternoon was one of two scheduled for Tuesday. The two also were due to speak in Gainesville later in the day.
Pence touted Kemp’s record since the governor took office in 2019.
“No governor has done more to create jobs, cut taxes … put criminals behind bars and protect the unborn,” Pence said. “Brian Kemp is singularly one of the most successful conservative governors in the United States of America.”
Kemp repeated the themes he’s been hitting for weeks on the stump, how his decision to reopen Georgia’s economy during the coronavirus pandemic ahead of other states paved the way for record low unemployment and investment.
Georgia launched its economic recovery at a time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and the news media were criticizing him for reopening businesses and schools too soon, Kemp said.
“We weren’t listening to [them],” he said. “We were listening to the restaurant people, the barber shops, and the cosmetologists. … I understood the pain they were feeling.”
“Georgia was the first state in America to open again,” Pence added. Governor Brian Kemp led the way.”
Pence also praised Kemp for steering a Parents’ Bill of Rights through the General Assembly, which provides a process for parents to get directly involved in their children’s education.
The former vice president called the election reform measure Georgia lawmakers passed last year with Kemp’s backing “one of the strongest election integrity bills in America.”
And Pence tied Abrams to the Biden administration, warning she would be a rubber stamp for the president if she is elected governor.
“Stacey Abrams is going to fall in line with the Biden-Harris administration that has brought inflation to a 40-year high, facilitated a wave of crime and the worst crisis on the Southern border in American history,” Pence said.
Kemp urged his supporters not to let his solid lead in the polls make them complacent with just a week left before Election Day.
“We cannot let up,” he said. “Don’t believe the polls. Don’t believe the media. We’ve got to work like we never worked before.”
Pence’s trip to Georgia came four days after former President Barack Obama traveled to Atlanta to give a boost to Abrams, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and the rest of Georgia’s Democratic ticket.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.