Like other visits to Georgia, Trump’s fundraiser in Atlanta will be as notable for who attended it as who avoided it.
And the wealthy patrons and powerful politicians who pack the private event will offer a rare look at the MAGA hierarchy in Georgia that is seeding Trump’s campaign coffers — and could most benefit from a November victory.
“I’m glad to be hosting the event,” said Jones, one of a handful of deep-pocketed Republicans listed as one of the fundraiser’s hosts. “I’m proud to support President Trump and will do whatever I can to get him elected and help turn this country around.”
It also puts a magnifying glass on the politicians competing for Trump’s favor if he’s elected to a second term. Jones and Loeffler, another co-host, could square off in 2026 to succeed Kemp. Perdue could be in the mix for a Cabinet post in a second Trump administration.
The who’s who of who’s attending — and the notable absences — puts the strains of the Trump era on display yet again in Georgia, which voted Democratic in 2020 for the first time in decades and is considered a crucial GOP target in November.
“Georgia is an anomaly because almost anywhere else the Republican infrastructure is Trump-led and MAGA-ified. But in Georgia you have an old guard Republican establishment that still runs the state, many of whom survived Trump’s opposition,” said GOP strategist Brian Robinson, who is adept at translating the former president’s populist mantra to a mainstream audience.
“It creates this odd construct where the top Republicans in the state aren’t on the host committees for events like this,” Robinson said, adding they are still “team players” who will pull behind Trump in November.
That doesn’t mean they’re happy warriors. Kemp went to lengths to avoid saying whether he voted for Trump last month in Georgia’s presidential primary, though he’s repeatedly said he will…
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