WINDER, Ga.—Walter Yarbrough got his mom to pull him out of school Friday morning so he could go to the Brian Kemp rally in their town, Winder, Georgia.
Yarbrough came to the rally in a downtown park in cowboy boots, jeans, a blue dress shirt, and a blue blazer.
“He dresses like Brian Kemp. Every day,” Gwen Rice said of her 12-year-old grandson before he arrived. “It’s his goal in life to be Brian Kemp.”
She checked the time and fretted Walter hadn’t arrived yet. “I can’t believe he’s not here. He’s been ready since 7 o'clock in the morning. If Brian Kemp is not elected, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Walter, who, according to his grandfather Mike Rice, plans to run for mayor when he’s 18, made it in time to see his hero.
Kemp campaigned on a Friday bus tour through Winder and other small towns northeast of Atlanta. Accompanying him was former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Christie got mileage out of Jersey humor and said it was part of his job to help criticize Kemp’s opponent Stacey Abrams. He needled her for basking in the national spotlight since 2018.
“She loves being famous, doesn’t she? How about Stacey? She loves being on TV. She loves being in Vogue Magazine. She loves going to those fundraisers in Hollywood, California, with all the stars who donate to her campaign. She loves going to the Upper East Side of New York City, collecting all the money from the elite liberals there as well.”
“What’s that do for Georgia? It doesn’t do anything for Georgia. It just makes Stacey rich, and it just makes Stacey famous. Well, I’ve got a suggestion for her, a kind suggestion like the kind people of New Jersey give: Guess what, Stacey? Next Wednesday, you can be famous full-time because you’re not going to be governor.”
The campaign website for Stacy Abrams calls Kemp “a far-right extremist who is too dangerous for Georgia.”
“His extreme and unpopular agenda hurts Georgians: his ‘criminal carry’ policy puts lives at risk, his refusal to expand Medicaid closes hospitals and his cruel anti-abortion mandate hurts women,” the website says.
“Four more years of his radical policies threaten our state’s future and our freedom, and it favors the wealthy few at the expense of hardworking families.”
Leading in most polls, Kemp obeyed the campaign dictum to “Always campaign like you’re behind.”
“Do not believe any polls,” Kemp told a crowd of about 125 people. He urged them to vote early. That was probably unnecessary: all interviewed by a reporter from The Epoch Times said they already had. When Kemp asked for a show of hands of “traditionalists” who only vote on Election Day, only one or two raised their hands.
Kemp reminded people that Abrams, like most media and politicians, supported the COVID-19 lockdown which Kemp defied to reopen the state. And he tied her to the defund the police movement. The crowd contained several law enforcement officers. Some had their photos taken with Kemp and Christie, a former federal prosecutor, afterward.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith introduced Kemp and Christie. He recalled the day six years ago when Kemp walked into his office and told him he was running for governor.
“And he told me his plan. And he told me what he was going to do. And he sat there and talked to me for a while, and he said, ‘Can I have your support?’ And I said, ‘You’ll have my support from now on,'” Smith said.
Then Smith turned to Kemp.
“Governor, I gotta give you an honest answer, and I gotta be truthful with you. You remember the story of Jerry Maguire? ‘You had me at hello.’ You had me at ‘I’m running for governor.’ I didn’t hear anything after that,” Smith said.
Kemp reminded the crowd he'd gone against the wind to keep small businesses open during the pandemic. The downtown streets in Winder are lined with small businesses.
“I was listening to the folks that were working in the restaurants. I was listening to the folks that didn’t have their barbershop or their hair salon open. People criticized me, saying bowling alleys and tattoo parlors aren’t essential. Well, if you get your paycheck from there, it’s pretty dang essential to keeping the roof over your head and buying groceries for your children,” Kemp said.
One man in the crowd, Dennis Butler of Winder, owns a Western store called Horse Country. He told The Epoch Times he'd voted for Kemp “because he kept us small business people open when a lot of politicians wanted to close us down.”
Christie urged the crowd to campaign for Kemp every day to give him a clear victory Tuesday and avoid a runoff.
“I don’t want to have to come back down here,” Christie said. “I promise you something. If you people let me down, I’m coming down here, and I ain’t coming alone. We’re going to come back with some friends of mine from New Jersey,” Christie said to laughter from the crowd. “and we’re going to have an individual talk.”
Kemp praised Christie for coming South to campaign. He added that Christie had also done so in 2018 and in 2010 and 2014 for Georgia Republican Nathan Deal.
Christie came, he told The Epoch Times afterward, “because it’s one of the most important states in the country. It’s growing. The businesses are growing. People are moving here. It’s important Republicans never take a state like Georgia for granted.”
