Georgia GOP Lt. Gov. Tells Trump to ‘Stay in Mar-a-Lago’ and Butt Out of Georgia Governor Race

Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan doesn’t want Trump meddling in the state’s upcoming governor’s race.

“We don’t need the traveling circus of Donald Trump to stay here in Georgia,” Duncan said during a CNN appearance Monday (video via Raw Story). “We need him to stay down in Mar-a-Lago, working on his handicap playing golf and let us be conservatives here in Georgia and move forward.”

Duncan told the president to stay away when responding to news that former Sen. David Perdue, a wealthy businessman, has entered the Republican primary to challenge incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday. Perdue lost a January runoff election to Jon Ossoff, giving the Democratic Party control of the Senate. The GOP nominee for governor will likely face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who announced her candidacy last week. Abrams ran against Kemp in the 2018 race and lost by a narrow margin.

“It appears early on [Perdue] will try to carry Donald Trump’s water on the conspiracy stuff, and that seems to be the only tail wind he’s got. It’s unfortunate,” Duncan said. According to Politico, Trump talked Perdue into entering the race to challenge Kemp, who refused to go along with Trump’s insistence he overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Duncan has positioned himself as a Trump critic. In his book, GOP 2.0, Duncan said he was “still furious” at his fellow Georgia Republicans for their attempts to “invalidate their own constituents’ votes.”

Regardless of Duncan’s wishes, one Trump adviser has said the former president plans to be involved in the race. “Trump’s endorsement matters to Republican voters and he’s going to be helpful because this race is important to him,” the adviser told Politico.