But there are still deep misgivings about Trump among many of the other 43% of Republican voters who signaled they’re not in his camp. And if recent Georgia history is a guide, a small number of middle-of-the-road independent voters can decide an election in this swing state.

What’s clear in the AJC poll is that Georgia, for all its quirky politics and personalities, mirrors many other states. Trump led his rivals by double digits in every demographic surveyed, despite political setbacks in Georgia and a sweeping Fulton County indictment leveled against him in August.

And a broad majority of likely GOP voters believe Trump-driven conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was tainted by widespread voting fraud, even with a mountain of evidence disproving that narrative.

But in a reminder of the party’s sometimes contradictory dynamics, Gov. Brian Kemp was by far the most popular Republican in the poll. Kemp, who achieved an 80% approval rating, has been among his party’s leading critics of Trump — and recently offered a stinging rebuke of the former president after he renewed a lie about his 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

The high level of support for the dueling Republican figures in Georgia has baffled even longtime GOP strategists.

“The uniqueness of Georgia can’t be overstated — the two most popular Republicans in the state are Gov. Kemp and President Trump,” said Scott Paradise, who most recently served as GOP U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s campaign manager. “It’s a unicorn, but it’s reality.”

‘It’s over?’

So how do rank-and-file Republican voters reconcile their support for both Kemp and Trump? Misty White of Rome attempted to explain in an interview this week.

White, who works in the insurance industry, said she is firmly on the “Trump wagon,” even if she cringes at some of his actions. She values Trump’s economic and national security policies on the federal level, just as she credits Kemp for boosting the state’s jobs market.

“I don’t worry about these divisions. Whoever the party supports at the end of the day is who voters like me will get behind,” she said. “I don’t think it will change the outcome of Kemp and Trump working together. They may not love each other, but they’ll be cordial.”

There are signs, too, that Trump’s fourth indictment could help him unify his party’s base. Most Georgia Republicans say they believe the charges filed against him in Atlanta were politically motivated, though one-third also fear they could weaken Trump in a rematch against Biden.

“I think it’s all phony from Biden’s administration to try to get him not to run. If Trump would tell him, ‘I’ll cut off the election and not run,’ they’d probably drop the charges,” said Darlene Turner, who owns a taxi company in Dalton. “They’re just trying to get him not to run.”

Justin Forrister sees himself more as a middle-of-the-road voter than a die-hard conservative. He didn’t back Trump in Republican primaries the past two election cycles, but he voted for him in the general election — and would do so again.

“There are a lot of things that are left to be desired about President Trump,” said Forrister, who lives in Paulding County. “But I do think the country was in a much better place, especially from an economic standpoint.”

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Trump loyalists are painting his primary victory as inevitable — and encouraging his doubters to come to grips with it.

“To be honest with you, the primaries are over. It’s over,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, pointing to Trump’s high poll numbers. “Most voters don’t see this as a real race. In most peoples’ minds, this is over with.”

‘Grifter scam’

If there’s a factor that can shake up the 2024 election, it’s the complicated relationship between mainstream Republicans such as Kemp and politicians like Greene and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones who have come to embody the Trump wing in Georgia.

Jones was one of the first Republicans in Georgia to endorse Trump in 2016 and served as an elector in the sham 2020 ceremony that is a focal point of the 41-count Fulton County indictment.

And a day after Kemp called Trump a “loser” for skipping the first GOP debate, Jones took to social media to harangue District Attorney Fani Willis for the “national disgrace” of arresting Trump.

Already, the two are taking very different approaches to the full-scale feud unfolding in the state Senate after state Sen. Colton Moore, a backbencher, announced a doomed effort to impeach Willis that has nonetheless riled Trump loyalists.

Jones described the politically impossible effort, which would require Democratic support to pass, as “not practical” while assailing Willis for a “gross misuse of power.”

Kemp took it a step further during a Thursday press conference where he condemned Moore and his “grifter scam” — and warned again of “distractions” that could cost Republicans more elections.

“The last time we were talking about special sessions here in the state of Georgia, just a few weeks later the Republican majority lost two U.S. Senate races,” Kemp said, referring to Trump’s fixation on his own loss while then-U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue sputtered to runoff defeats.

Republicans also need no reminder of what happened in last year’s midterm. That’s when Kemp and other mainstream GOP candidates defeated Democratic challengers by appealing to moderate and independent voters. Walker, meanwhile, aligned himself closely with Trump and his brand of politics — and wound up the only statewide Republican to lose.

Some Republican voters worry about another replay, with the metro Atlanta suburbs as ground zero for a new consequential battle for swing voters.

“I’m not surprised Trump is leading the pack,” said Mike Tucker of Tift County, once an avowed Trump supporters who is now undecided on his comeback bid. “But Atlanta decides elections, and that was the difference the last two races.”

Staff writer David Wickert contributed to this article.