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Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp leads Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in a hypothetical matchup in next year’s Senate race, according to new polling from a conservative group.
The poll, conducted by WPA Intelligence for the Club for Growth and shared with POLITICO, also found Ossoff leading by double digits over several other potential GOP candidates.
In a head-to-head matchup, Kemp led Ossoff 46 to 40 percent, with 14 percent undecided.
By contrast, Ossoff led other Republicans, including Rep. Buddy Carter by 13 points; Rep. Mike Collins by 10 points; insurance commissioner John King by 16 points; Rep. Rich McCormick by 11 points and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger by 14 points.
The survey of 500 likely Senate voters was conducted in mid-January and had a margin of error of 4.4 points.
Kemp, the most popular Republican official in the state, has not said whether he will run for Senate in 2026. He has expressed openness to a potential 2028 run for the Republican presidential nomination. Kemp currently serves as chair of the Republican Governors Association.
The 2026 Senate map is notably small and Georgia is one of the GOP’s best pickup opportunities.
Kemp has had a turbulent relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, who harbored resentment toward Kemp and other GOP officials in Georgia for declining to work to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win in the state.
But as Trump found himself in what appeared to be a tightening race against Kamala Harris last summer, he was encouraged by friends and advisers to patch things up with Kemp, after weeks earlier referring to him as a “bad guy” and “average governor.”
Ossoff won election in January 2021 after a tight runoff against GOP Sen. David Perdue, an election that took place in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 election loss and comments the former president made discouraging Republicans from trusting election results in the state. GOP turnout in the runoff election cratered.
Ossoff made his first high-profile run for a suburban Georgia House seat in 2017 in one of the first major special elections after Trump won in 2016. He lost to Republican Karen Handel but her victory was short-lived. She lost to now-Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) in 2018.
Trump won the state in November by just over 2 percentage points, defeating Harris 50.7 percent to 48.5 percent.
The poll found Kemp’s favorability to be 58 percent in the state, while Trump’s was 48 percent, and Ossoff’s 45 percent.
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