Latest news with #SenatePrimary
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump team 'pissed off' with Kemp over candidate pick in Georgia's Senate GOP primary battle
President Donald Trump's political team and top advisers to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia apparently aren't on the same page when it comes to the key southeastern battleground state's Republican Senate primary. The race is crucial for Republicans aiming to expand their Senate majority, as Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in a state that Trump narrowly carried in last year's election, is viewed by the GOP as the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election in next year's midterm elections. Kemp, a popular two-term conservative governor whom Trump had heavily criticized in the past, was courted by national Republicans to take on Ossoff. But Kemp, who is term-limited, announced earlier this year that he would pass on a 2026 Senate run. Sources in Trump's political orbit and Republican sources in Georgia confirm to Fox News that there was an agreement between the president's political operation and Kemp's political team that they would work together to find a candidate that they could all unify behind to take on Ossoff in the Senate race. First On Fox: Trump House Ally To Launch Senate Bid Next Week In Key Battleground State Those sources also confirm that Kemp and Trump – the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics – met two weeks ago to discuss the Senate race in Georgia. Read On The Fox News App But when the governor floated the name of former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, a source close to the president's political team said "they were told to stand down, because Trump's team wasn't ready to move forward on anybody." And when Kemp and his team did move forward with Dooley, it upset Trump's advisers, who, according to sources, were "already pretty annoyed" that Kemp had passed earlier this year on taking on Ossoff in the Senate race. Popular Gop Governor Passes On Senate Bid In 2026 "We had a deal to work together," a top political source in the Trump orbit told Fox News on Friday. "Kemp went out on his own – which has frustrated and pissed off Trump orbit." The source added that "the best option for the GOP in Georgia was and is Brian Kemp. Unfortunately, he has chosen the path of the weak, and – instead of leading – has decided to circumvent and self-anoint a candidate no one has heard of and the president hasn't met." "The operation that delivered the win in Georgia was the Trump organization – not a faux operation – it's hard to see it rallying behind the blind ambition of someone more interested in 2028 than in 2026," the source said, in a not-so-veiled reference to Kemp's potential interest in seeking the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. But a source close to the governor told Fox News that it's factually not true that they were told to stand down on Dooley. And the source added that Kemp meant what he said that he wants to work with the president and his team and remains that way. Kemp's political team first floated the Dooley trial balloon about two months ago. A longtime Georgia-based Republican strategist said the reaction in the Peach State among Republicans "was very negative." Dooley, who is the son of former longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is close with Kemp, who is a longtime friend. And Dooley has hired two top Kemp political advisers to help with his potential Senate campaign. A Republican source in Georgia says a decision by Dooley on whether he'll run could come as early as next week. Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a Trump ally and supporter in the House, will announce his candidacy for the Senate next week, sources with knowledge told Fox News Digital on Friday. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King also announced a run, but ended his bid on Thursday. Trump and Kemp have a turbulent political history. Trump backed the then-Georgia secretary of state in his successful 2018 campaign for governor. But during the two years after his 2020 election defeat to former President Joe Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state's GOP gubernatorial primary, as Kemp successfully cruised to re-election to a second term as governor. Kemp Speaks Out After Trump Flips And Praises The Georgia Governor But last summer, amid the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results. Trump quickly changed his tune on Kemp days later, and praised the governor in a social media post "for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country." Kemp, in a Fox News Digital interview a few days later, downplayed Trump's tirade against him, calling it a "small distraction that's in the past." As Dooley moves closer to launching a campaign, Collins is just days from declaring his candidacy. Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company, is in his second term representing Georgia's 10th Congressional District, which includes a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta. The conservative lawmaker, who's the son of the late Republican Rep. Mac Collins of Georgia, has been moving closer to launching a Senate campaign for weeks. Collins was an early backer of the president, supporting him as Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle. Collins at the beginning of this year reintroduced the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants charged with burglary or theft be detained. It's named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who had illegally entered the U.S. The case grabbed national attention. The bill, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, became the first legislation signed into law by Trump as he started his second tour of duty in the White House. A Republican source said that Collins has a "great relationship" with the president and his political team. And a Georgia-based Republican consultant told Fox News that "the lane that Mike is going to run in is the America First fighter who's been with President Trump. Carter is also courting a Trump endorsement in the GOP article source: Trump team 'pissed off' with Kemp over candidate pick in Georgia's Senate GOP primary battle
Fox News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump team 'pissed off' with Kemp over candidate pick in Georgia's Senate GOP primary battle
President Donald Trump's political team and top advisers to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia apparently aren't on the same page when it comes to the key southeastern battleground state's Republican Senate primary. The race is crucial for Republicans aiming to expand their Senate majority, as Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in a state that Trump narrowly carried in last year's election, is viewed by the GOP as the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election in next year's midterm elections. Kemp, a popular two-term conservative governor whom Trump had heavily criticized in the past, was courted by national Republicans to take on Ossoff. But Kemp, who is term-limited, announced earlier this year that he would pass on a 2026 Senate run. Sources in Trump's political orbit and Republican sources in Georgia confirm to Fox News that there was an agreement between the president's political operation and Kemp's political team that they would work together to find a candidate that they could all unify behind to take on Ossoff in the Senate race. Those sources also confirm that Kemp and Trump – the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics – met two weeks ago to discuss the Senate race in Georgia. But when the governor floated the name of former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, a source close to the president's political team said "they were told to stand down, because Trump's team wasn't ready to move forward on anybody." And when Kemp and his team did move forward with Dooley, it upset Trump's advisers, who, according to sources, were "already pretty annoyed" that Kemp had passed earlier this year on taking on Ossoff in the Senate race. "We had a deal to work together," a top political source in the Trump orbit told Fox News on Friday. "Kemp went out on his own – which has frustrated and pissed off Trump orbit." The source added that "the best option for the GOP in Georgia was and is Brian Kemp. Unfortunately, he has chosen the path of the weak, and – instead of leading – has decided to circumvent and self-anoint a candidate no one has heard of and the president hasn't met." "The operation that delivered the win in Georgia was the Trump organization – not a faux operation – it's hard to see it rallying behind the blind ambition of someone more interested in 2028 than in 2026," the source said, in a not-so-veiled reference to Kemp's potential interest in seeking the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Kemp's political team first floated the Dooley trial balloon about two months ago. A longtime Georgia-based Republican strategist said the reaction in the Peach State among Republicans "was very negative." Dooley, who is the son of former longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is close with Kemp, who is a longtime friend. And Dooley has hired two top Kemp political advisers to help with his potential Senate campaign. A Republican source in Georgia says a decision by Dooley on whether he'll run could come as early as next week. Republican Rep. Mike Collins, a Trump ally and supporter in the House, will announce his candidacy for the Senate next week, sources with knowledge told Fox News Digital on Friday. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King also announced a run, but ended his bid on Thursday. Trump and Kemp have a turbulent political history. Trump backed the then-Georgia secretary of state in his successful 2018 campaign for governor. But during the two years after his 2020 election defeat to former President Joe Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the state's GOP gubernatorial primary, as Kemp successfully cruised to re-election to a second term as governor. But last summer, amid the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results. Trump quickly changed his tune on Kemp days later, and praised the governor in a social media post "for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country." Kemp, in a Fox News Digital interview a few days later, downplayed Trump's tirade against him, calling it a "small distraction that's in the past." While it's unclear if Dooley will move forward and launch a campaign, Collins is just days from declaring his candidacy. Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company, is in his second term representing Georgia's 10th Congressional District, which includes a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta. The conservative lawmaker, who's the son of the late Republican Rep. Mac Collins of Georgia, has been moving closer to launching a Senate campaign for weeks. Collins was an early backer of the president, supporting him as Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle. Collins at the beginning of this year reintroduced the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants charged with burglary or theft be detained. It's named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who had illegally entered the U.S. The case grabbed national attention. The bill, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, became the first legislation signed into law by Trump as he started his second tour of duty in the White House. A Republican source said that Collins has a "great relationship" with the president and his political team. And a Georgia-based Republican consultant told Fox News that "the lane that Mike is going to run in is the America First fighter who's been with President Trump. Carter is also courting a Trump endorsement in the GOP primary. Fox News reached out to the governor's political team for comment but had not received a response by the time the story was published.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cornyn says Trump ‘not ready' to endorse despite appeals
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said President Trump has told him he is not ready to endorse in his contentious GOP Senate primary against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). 'I've talked to him about it a number of times. He is not ready to make that endorsement,' Cornyn told NBC News on Tuesday. 'I think as we start advertising and closing the gap in the polls, hopefully he'll see fit to make that endorsement, but we can't wait,' he continued. 'I pointed out to him, and he knows this, that if he endorsed me, the race would be over.' Cornyn and Paxton are both Trump allies, but the president has held off on formally endorsing in the race. Numerous polls show Cornyn trailing Paxton in the primary. A poll released in May by Texas Southern University showed Paxton leading Cornyn 43 percent to 34 percent, with 23 percent saying they were undecided. An internal poll also released in May by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is supporting Cornyn, showed Paxton trailing Cornyn by 16 points. While Cornyn and his allies are hopeful that a Trump endorsement would boost him, polls show otherwise. An internal poll obtained by The Hill and conducted by the firm Eyes Over showed Cornyn trailing Paxton 44 percent to 38 percent after Republican primary voters were informed of a scenario in which Trump backed Cornyn, compared to 50 percent to 33 percent before they were told. Another poll obtained by The Hill, which was conducted on behalf of the Conservative Policy Project, showed Cornyn only gaining 1 point with Trump's endorsement against Paxton and trailing 46 percent to 34 percent. The same poll showed Paxton trailing a generic Democratic candidate by 3 points. However, Cornyn allies worry Paxton as a Senate nominee would open the door to Democrats at having a chance to win statewide in the Lone Star State. The same Texas Southern University poll showed Cornyn leading Democratic Senate candidate and former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) by 4 points and Paxton leading Allred by 2 points. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's wife files for divorce
The wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed for divorce Thursday, a move likely to reverberate in his campaign to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the most closely watched Senate primaries in the country. Paxton's wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, wrote Thursday on X she filed for divorce 'on biblical grounds' after 38 years of marriage. She cited unspecified 'recent discoveries,' though she said in her divorce filing Ken Paxton had committed adultery and they had not lived together for over a year, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Independent
10-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Texas AG and Senate candidate Ken Paxton's politician wife files for divorce on ‘biblical grounds'
Angela Paxton, the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who is in the midst of a heated Republican U.S. Senate primary — announced Thursday that she is filing for divorce, citing 'biblical reasons.' Angela is also an elected officials, holding a Texas state senate seat. Her husband is challenging the state's senior U.S. senator, John Cornyn, in next year's primary for the GOP nomination. If Paxton wins, Cornyn will lose his seat in the chamber — unless he runs as an independent, and wins in November. But the wording of Angela Paxton's post on X, formerly known as Twitter, suggested that the challenger could be in for an unpleasant news cycle (or cycles). 'Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds. I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage,' wrote Angela Paxton, who has represented a district in northeast Texas in the state legislature since 2019. 'I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose,' she concluded. Her post could mark the beginning of big trouble for her husband's Senate campaign if salacious or otherwise unseemly revelations are on the way as a result of the couple's divorce proceedings. The attorney general is a figure of controversy in the state; his strong ties to the MAGA-aligned right allowed him to weather an impeachment effort on corruption charges in 2023, and he has also separately faced an FBI investigation and an indictment in 2015 for state securities fraud (the charges were dismissed after he completed a pretrial restitution agreement). It was during that 2023 impeachment push that documents revealing Paxton's extramarital affair were published. 'He says he's anti-woke, but he funnels millions of taxpayer dollars to lawyers who celebrate DEI. And Ken claims to be a man of faith but uses fake Uber accounts to meet his girlfriend and deceive his family.' "Ken Paxton is a fraud," Cornyn's team said in April. Cornyn, meanwhile, is burdened by Paxton and other Trump allies labeling him a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and the sharp contrast drawn between him and the state's feistier junior U.S. senator, Ted Cruz. Cornyn's support for Ukraine plays a large part in the accusation, as did his calls for his party to 'move on' from Donald Trump in the wake of the attack on the Capitol. With the GOP having refused to do so, Cornyn's votes to certify Joe Biden's election victory and support for gun safety legislation after a massacre at a Texas elementary school set the senator apart from the party's ultraconservatives. That same dynamic is expected to play out in other Republican primary elections next year, including in Kentucky and North Carolina where two GOP senators, Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis, are retiring. Cornyn was trailing his challenger badly in a poll released in June, but with the election still a year away the bulk of voters are not fully engaged yet with the race. Still, Donald Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the contest and could swing it in Paxton's favor should Cornyn, who has espoused his own support for the president as he plays defense, anger him between now and the primary. Punchbowl reported in early June that a poll from the Cornyn-supporting Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC tied to GOP leaders John Thune and (formerly) McConnell, found Cornyn trailing by a large margin. Later that month, the Texas senator denied that he was considering dropping out of the race, and said that he saw a path to victory. He also attacked Paxton over allegations that he engaged in witness tampering during his impeachment trial. Cornyn told reporters at the time that he believed his defeat would open the seat up to flip Democratic in the general election. "I'm absolutely determined to run and to win — if I didn't think I could win, I wouldn't run," Cornyn said, according to Houston Public Media."I've simply labored too long in Texas Republican politics to turn the seat over to Democrats in November. ... Any suggestion that I'm thinking about dropping out of the race is false."
