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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson has contributed $1 million to Gov. Brian Kemp's super PAC, according to federal campaign finance records, a development that appears to be helping presidential nominee Donald Trump in battleground Georgia and showing evidence of his rapprochement with Kemp.
The influx of cash will help fuel Kemp's robust get-out-the-vote operation in the state on behalf of the former president and other Republicans. In 2020, Trump lost Georgia by 11,779 votes — roughly three-tenths of a percentage point. Trump's 2024 contest with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is viewed as extremely competitive.
The contribution also opens the relationship between the Georgia governor and Adelson, one of the nation's top Republican donors and the widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.
Her contribution is at least a small measure that Trump and Kemp have achieved at least an uneasy peace. The two have disagreed publicly in recent years, especially about Trump’s defeat in Georgia in 2020.
Trump still argues falsely that he won Georgia four years ago, making unproven and debunked claims of voter fraud, something he consistently brings up as he campaigns to return to the White House.
Kemp, who refused to stop the certification of the 2020 vote, has repeatedly pressed Trump publicly to move on.
Efforts to bridge the rift began in late August after Trump railed against the governor for nearly 10 minutes during a Georgia campaign rally. During the Atlanta event, Trump derided Kemp as “a bad guy," “disloyal” and “a very average governor,” despite Kemp beating Trump's hand-picked GOP primary challenger to him, David Perdue, by more than 625,000 votes and almost 52 percentage points in 2022.
At the same rally, Trump also mocked Kemp's wife Marty, who had said she planned to write in Kemp's name for president in 2024.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told The Associated Press shortly after the event that he told Trump, "You’re not going to win Georgia this way. And Georgia is yours to lose.”
A few days later, Graham met privately with Kemp at a Republican fundraiser at the home of former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Graham later convened a call between Kemp and Adelson. The call was confirmed by two familiar individuals who could not publicly discuss the private conversation between Kemp and Adelson.
Kemp had agreed to sit for an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity — another Trump ally — in which the Georgia governor said, “We need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.” Moments later, Trump praised Kemp on his social media site for his “help and support.”
Though Kemp and Adelson have known each other and spoken on and off for years, the two were expected to cross paths the following week, at the Republican Jewish Coalition's leadership conference in Las Vegas. Several other leading Republicans, such as National Republican Senate Campaign Chairman Steve Daines, a senator from Montana, among others, were also on the speakers list.
But Kemp was forced to scrub his Las Vegas travel plans on Sept. 4, the day two students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Windsor, Georgia.
Though the check from Adelson to Kemp's federal political action committee “Hardworking Americans,” was dated Sept. 20, according to the Federal Election Commission records, the money has hardly settled all differences.
A little over a week later, Trump accused President Joe Biden of politicizing the administration's response to Hurricane Helene and not being in touch with Kemp after Hurricane Helene ravaged Georgia.
Kemp set the record straight when he said, “The president just called me yesterday afternoon, and I missed him and called him right back,” Kemp said. "And he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, 'You know, we’ve got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process.”
“He offered, if there are other things we need, just to call him directly," Kemp said, "Which I appreciate that.”