Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Met With Furious Boos by Trump Supporters at GOP State Convention

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was overwhelmingly booed by attendees of the state's Republican Party convention Saturday, with videos showing people prominently waving signs in support of former President Donald Trump as he took the stage.

Kemp, who Trump has repeatedly blamed for refusing to overturn his November presidential election loss, was jeered by Trump supporters during the second day of the state's GOP convention. The Georgia governor eventually calmed down the crowd and even drew applause after he highlighted his reopening of the state from the COVID-19 pandemic back in late April.

But tensions over Kemp and Republican Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan's refusal to replace the state's Democratic slate of electors with GOP supporters of Trump were clearly still evident six months after the election.

Kemp was introduced by former Georgia Senator David Perdue, who lost in the ensuing January runoff election. The Republican governor, who said Trump's electoral demands violated state law, spoke for about 30 seconds before the boos were quiet enough for him to be heard.

Georgia Public Broadcasting predicted earlier this week that the state convention would be a "pro-Trump, anti-Establishment affair." Editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, Brian O'Shea, said attendees of day two of the convention saved "the most raucous reception" yet for Vernon Jones, a former Georgia state representative who switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP in January over his support for Trump.

In contrast to Kemp's negative reception from members of his own party, Jones received a near standing-ovation from the GOP attendees. Jones is Kemp's only declared primary opponent for the next gubernatorial election.

A video of Trump later played for the state convention attendees in which the former president said "strange things happened" during the last election, but he did not directly blast Kemp as he has done in frequent statements ever since leaving office.

In a May 18 statement, Trump demanded Georgia's GOP-controlled Senate and House "build up the courage to expose the large-scale Presidential Election Fraud" before blasting Kemp as part of the reason he did not defeat President Joe Biden.

"Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan won't be running again for office. He was the one who, along with Governor Brian Kemp, stopped the Georgia State Senate from doing the job they wanted to do on the 2020 Presidential Election Fraud. Duncan's fight against Election Fraud made him unelectable," Trump said in his late May statement, which complained that Georgia's top GOP leaders refused to violate state election laws to hand him the win.

"Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change that process for the Nov. 3rd election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution," Kemp and Duncan said in a joint statement reply to Trump's demands last December.

Duncan later described the country's Republican Party as a whole "damaged" during a May interview.

Newsweek reached out to Kemp's office Saturday afternoon for any additional remarks about the booing reception and his impending primary battle against Jones.