Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately on Friday with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who has publicly rebuked DeSantis’s chief rival, Donald Trump.
The meeting took place in Atlanta during an event for Republican presidential candidates, according to the DeSantis campaign, which added that an endorsement wasn’t discussed. The two men spoke before DeSantis appeared at the candidate forum, which was sponsored by the conservative radio host Erick Erickson, who didn’t invite Trump.
Kemp is the latest Republican governor who has taken a stance against the former president to be sought out by DeSantis.
He has campaigned with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on numerous occasions. And on a New Hampshire radio show earlier this week, he praised that state’s governor, Chris Sununu, who has also been critical of Trump.
After Trump and several of his allies were indicted in Georgia this week over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Kemp denounced the former president’s continuing and false claims of fraud.
Earlier: Trump’s Rivals Look to Seize Spotlight as He Skips Georgia Event
“Our elections in Georgia are secure, accessible, and fair and will continue to be as long as I am governor,” Kemp said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The future of our country is at stake in 2024 and that must be our focus.”
Kemp and other state officials enraged Trump when they refused his demands to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Last year, Trump championed an unsuccessful primary challenge against Kemp by David Perdue, a former senator.
Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, Georgia doesn’t vote early in the Republican presidential contests, but it is one of the few swing states that could play a crucial role in determining the outcome of next year’s general election.
At the Atlanta forum, the last major candidate gathering before next week’s debate, Kemp told the audience that he believed Trump would not stand trial in Georgia before the election, despite efforts from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to set a March date.
As for the persistent arguments about the last presidential race made by Trump and others, he said: “We have to be focused on the future. Not something that happened three years ago.”
--With assistance from Gregory Korte.
