Brian Kemp will not run for the Senate in Georgia and give Ossoff an elevator

Governor Brian Kemp from Georgia decided against the Senate in 2026 and the Republicans robbed their top potential recruit against Senator Jon Ossoff, who will be regarded next year as the most at risk of the chamber at the ballot.

Mr. Kemp is a popular governor of two term who won the re -election in 2022, although President Trump, who publicly complied with his false claims, the election in 2020, publicly complied with Mr. Kemp.

The top republicans nevertheless tried to advertise Mr. Kemp into the Senate breed, with the senators John Thune, the majority leader, and Tim Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senator Committee recently visited. Surveys had shown that he would have been an impressive challenger for Mr. Ossoff, who narrowly won in 2020.

“I decided that it is not the right decision for me and my family to be on the ballot next year,” Mr. Kemp wrote on X on Monday and said that he spoke to Mr. Trump on this day about his decision and the leadership of the Senate.

The news of Mr. Kemp’s decision comes when he is gathered with supporters and donors in Sea Island, Georgia, to maintain a three-day retreat, in which top donors were asked to serve up to $ 100,000 as an “executive chair”.

Mr. Kemp’s complicated relationship with Mr. Trump had driven a potential run.

Mr. Trump publicly attacked Mr. Kemp in 2024 when he fought in Georgia – as “Little Brian Kemp” – and publicly complained about Mr. Kemp’s wife, who also did not support him. “Let my family out,” replied Kemp.

Mr. Kemp and Mr. Trump finally appeared together and their relationship improved. But the governor has never dealt with the type of performative groveling that so many other Republicans did to stay in the president’s good grace.

Mr. Ossoff collected cash in the first quarter of 2025 to prepare for one of the most difficult races in the country next year. He did not stop him from criticizing Mr. Trump, although he ran in a state that the President won in 2025, and to accuse him of “authoritarian impulses” and the “wish to prevail as king”.

“This country was founded on a rejection of kings, and I believe that the American people are not interested in this new experiment in monarchy that this president is trying to impose,” he said recently.

Several prominent Republicans in Georgia were able to run, especially with Mr. Kemp. The list contains the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene; John King, the insurance commissioner; and Tyler Harper, the agricultural commissioner, who published a photo of himself in the offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in February.