Trump’s PAC has $70 million — and he’s focused on stopping Brian Kemp’s re-election: report

On Monday, The New York Timesreported that one of the many ways former President Donald Trump plans to re-enter politics over the next two years is working to oust Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), a one-time ally who had a falling out.

"Advisers to the president say he has just over $70 million in his PAC, Save America, with few restrictions on what he can do with it," reported Maggie Haberman and Reid Epstein. "For now, most of his staff is on a government payroll afforded to former presidents for a period of time after they leave office."

When he re-enters politics, however, said the report, one of his big targets will be Kemp.

"Mr. Trump's deepest hostility is reserved for Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, advisers said, and they expect he will expend the most energy trying to damage Mr. Kemp's re-election bid," said the report. "The governor's original sin was in choosing Kelly Loeffler over Mr. Trump's favored candidate, Doug Collins, to fill a vacant Senate seat in 2019, but it evolved into something more consuming as Mr. Trump repeated his debunked claims of widespread fraud in the state and held Mr. Kemp responsible for not doing enough to challenge the election results."

In fact, Trump has even called on Kemp to resign.

So far, it is unclear whether Kemp will draw a pro-Trump challenger, including Collins himself, but the president's animosity and his lingering support in the party suggest it could happen.

Democrats are certain to target Georgia's gubernatorial election heavily in 2022, having only narrowly lost it in 2018 and having won the state's presidential election and flipped both of its Senate seats. Stacey Abrams, the former House Minority Leader who ran in 2018 and was instrumental in voter outreach in 2020, has been floated as a possible name, although she has not made her plans clear yet.