Georgia Governor Brian Kemp at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., March 20, 2026. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer
When conservative two-term Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ruled out the possibility of running in his state's 2026 U.S. Senate race, many political reporters saw it as a sign that he isn't optimistic about his party's chances of defeating incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia). Kemp is widely viewed as the Republican who would have the best shot at defeating Ossoff in 2026, but he's adamant about not running.
During a Q&A interview with Politico's Jonathan Martin published on April 14, Kemp candidly discussed this year's midterms. And he didn't shy away from saying that Republicans are facing an uphill climb.
The conservative governor told Martin, "I am focused on 2026. I've told a lot of Republicans out there that a midterm election with a Republican president is tough enough already, no matter who that president is, and we'd better stay focused on 2026. You look at what's happened in our state. If you go back to the '18 election, that was a good year for Democrats — and I barely won that race. If we don't stay focused like we were back then — because it's going to be very close to re-win our governor's race in Georgia, to get back our U.S. Senate race. That is what we need to focus on. I'm not focused on anything other than that right now."s
Kemp has a track record in conservative politics: While Donald Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 and won it by only 2 percent in 2024, Kemp defeated a prominent and well-funded Democrat, Stacey Abrams, by roughly 8 percent when he ran for reelection in the 2022 midterms.
The GOP governor is being mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 2028. Although he isn't popular among MAGA conspiracy theorists — who resent him for acknowledging that Biden won Georgia fair and square in 2020 — more traditional conservatives believe he would have a good shot in the general election.
During his interview with Martin, Kemp didn't rule out the possibility of a presidential run in 2028 but wasn't anxious to talk about it either.
"I can't really speculate on that," Kemp said of 2028. "I think it's way too early to even talk about that. I think after '26 gets done, you're immediately gonna start seeing people posturing and talking, and that'll be fine. But for me, for what we're facing in Georgia, we gotta stay focused on what we got going on right here. We can help the Republican cause around the country if we can win our Senate seat back, which is what I'm motivated to do."