Vernon Jones, Potential Brian Kemp Rival, Blames Georgia Governor for Donald Trump Loss

A Republican former member of the Georgia House of Representatives has said he's seriously considering challenging Governor Brian Kemp in the upcoming 2022 election.

Vernon Jones, who was previously a Democrat, made headlines last year when he endorsed President Donald Trump's reelection. Jones spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and later changed his party affiliation.

"I'm looking closely at Georgia's race for Governor," Jones tweeted on Monday. "If it weren't for Brian Kemp, Donald Trump would still be President of these United States.

"We need courageous conservatives leading our state, not those afraid to stand up to the Radical Left."

Jones is referring to the fact that President Joe Biden won Georgia by a margin of less than 13,000 votes in 2020. Former President Trump and his allies hotly contested the results in the state, without success.

Trump publicly criticized Kemp, a Republican and a strong supporter of his, for not doing more to tackle unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Jones reiterated this criticism of Kemp in a statement issued to Breitbart News on Tuesday, saying: "If it weren't for Brian Kemp's cowardice, Donald Trump would be President of the United States today."

"Georgians deserve conservative leaders with the courage to fight. That's how we take our state back," he said.

However, the Electoral College results from Georgia were not decisive in November's election. If the state had voted for Trump, Biden would still have been elected as he flipped Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"If elected, I'll fight the battles Brian Kemp has been unwilling to fight for the past four years," Jones told Breitbart. "And most importantly, I'll never apologize for standing beside President Trump."

Jones also attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6 and spoke on stage before Trump addressed the crowd. Later the same day, some supporters of the former president stormed the U.S. Capitol, resulting in the death of five people. Jones denounced the violence in a statement at the time.

Trump harshly criticized Kemp during a phone-in interview with Fox News on November 29.

"They had electoral officials making deals like this character in Georgia who is a disaster," Trump said. "And the Governor's done nothing. He's done absolutely nothing. I'm ashamed that I endorsed him."

"Georgia law prohibits the Governor from interfering in elections," Kemp's office said in a statement on November 30. "The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order.

"As the Governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps — including a sample audit of signatures — to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised."

Georgia prosecutors launched a criminal probe in February into a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, asking him to "find" more than 11,000 votes.

The next gubernatorial election in Georgia will take place on November 8, 2022. Kemp easily won the runoff election in the 2018 Republican primary, garnering 69.4 percent of the vote.