The Keith Edwards Show - Trump Gets Bad News from Georgia... His Nightmare

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

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Jeff Duncan was lieutenant governor of Georgia and once a rising Republican star with a bright political future ahead of him. He had a prominent career in the GOP until Donald Trump's election lies became a breaking point. Duncan took the really unusual step of endorsing Kamala Harris, a Democrat, and even spoke at the Democratic National Convention. In response to all that, the Georgia GOP actually kicked him out of the party. Now he's a Democrat running for governor of Georgia and he's today's guest. But can't afford former Republican really win a Democratic primary? And if he can, could he actually beat a real Republican at a general election in Georgia? We'll try to figure that all out and more. Here's former

lieutenant governor of Georgia and newly announced candidate for governor, Jeff Duncan. I'm wondering how you feel a Democrat who is a former Republican is going to fare in a Democratic primary. Yeah, I think well. I mean, I've spent you know, the last few months, if not years, really talking to folks around the state. I mean, this has been a process for me. I spoke at the DNC. I campaigned for Kamala Harris all over the country. The conversations I've been having is, you know what, we haven't won in 27 years for the governorship in Georgia. They want a chance to win. And I think this is an opportunity to keep focused on the issues that matter most to Georgians. I mean, we've got real challenges

like other states do. We've got an affordability crisis. We've got a health care crisis. we've got a lot of challenges and I think folks like to hear that I'm going to stay focused on those issues. And the other thing too is tone and tenor. This toxic back and forth that certainly now being led by Donald Trump is disgusting. It's not helpful. It's dangerous. It's a lot of things, but it certainly doesn't lower the temperature. And that's not who I am. That's not what I built my career on. Yeah, no, I know. I mean, I got to applaud you because I know that you've suffered, at least politically speaking, I'm not sure what happened in your personal life, but I do know that you endorsed Kamala Harris and then the Republican Party basically kicked you out. Is that right?

Yeah, look, I was leaving anyway. So, I mean, that was like no shock. In fact, I just was smiling. My first answer, I think on CNN was what took them so long, right? Like, you know, look, this, this relationship with Donald Trump soured well before even the 2020 election where he tried to steal it from us. But that certainly amplified it. I mean, when, you know, he's 21st, tweeting at us, when, you know, he says something negative online and my wife gets death threats. I mean, that's real stuff. And we weren't going to back down. We weren't going to let him steal the election and, you know, not count millions of votes here in Georgia. But then it just keeps moving and moving and moving. I mean, this guy is just a human wrecking ball. He doesn't come

with ideas. He just comes with a bully pulpit. And it's dangerous. And, you know, look, Georgia's is interesting. You said you were here in 2020. I mean, we are the political center of the universe as far as George's concerned, right? Everybody's watching. And that, I think, is what's so interesting about this election. I think that's really what's gotten so much momentum behind my campaign is, yes, I'm staying focused on the issues that matter most to Georgians. Yes, I'm trying to do it with a calm demeanor so that I don't incite this unnecessary toxicity. But also, we're proven the narrative that Democrats can win in swing states, and we can flip the script. And for me, I think that's really going to be a bellwether for other

states around the country as they kind of line up and start to start to go back. Somebody asked me today, you know, how are you going to, you know, win the election? I said, let's reverse engineer this. Jeff Duncan has the best chance to beat whoever Donald Trump handpicks in this election, right? And he's already handpick somebody. He's picked Bert Jones. He's going to be a sock puppet for him. Day one, if Bert Jones wins this race, he's going to hand the keys over to Donald Trump. And he's going to run our schools. He's going to run our streets. He's going to run our legislature. He's going to run everything. If we beat him, you know, you know, then that obviously changes the trajectory.

But to win this primary, I think there's a lot of folks that do want to win. I'm not focused on necessarily running against my opponents in the primary. I'm focused on running for the 11 million Georgians. We've got challenges. We've also got a lot of great things. Georgia's best days are in front of us. We're one of those states that's going and growing, looking for ways to amplify that. Yeah, I think we've got a good story to tell.

I have a question. I tried looking it up, and I figured I just asked, you because I think it's interesting that you're a former Republican and you're now a Democrat, and I worked for the Lincoln Project too, so I don't get me wrong. You know, I think there are good people on all sides. You know, I was a Democrat working for them. They're very smartly said that we're not going to hire any Republicans. We can't trust them, but they hire Democrats. But why switch to Democrat when you can maybe be an independent and be like a really strong force without any tie to any party?

I don't think you can make a big enough impact as an independent. I think you've got to pick a team. And for me, the team is being a Democrat. And my leading reason is it makes it easier for me to love my neighbor. I mean, there's just a better toolkit on the Democratic side of the aisle of looking at ways to help those that are in need to be able to work forward, be able to grow forward, be able to just be a better person. That's my personal story. That's why I've made the switch. I mean, you know, anybody giving me political advice would tell me not to do what I'm doing.

But this isn't about political advice. This is about an opportunity to lead. And quite honestly, got to lead by example. I mean, every minute of every day, if I all of a sudden, you know, tear into somebody or become a hothead or start calling names like Donald Trump does, then I invalidate all of this work that I've done over the years to really help, you know, try to calm things down. What would be your solution? Let's say Donald Trump says, hey, we've got to send troops to Atlanta, your governor. what would you do about that? Well, my hope is that would never happen.

And I can't even imagine. I'm not trying to walk around the question, but really there's no rational reason for it. Streets in Atlanta are being patrolled by incredibly strong and courageous law enforcement officers. We have one of the best mayors in the country, Andre Dickens. He's been amazing. I can't even imagine a scenario like that. And here's the disingen.

Well, I've got to say, try to imagine it. because it could be at your doorstep. Interesting enough, in these cities that he's doing this in, I think the most telling reason behind why he's doing this is the fact that he doesn't even communicate. I mean, if you were truly wanting to solve crime, if you were truly wanting to be a part of the process, you would work in advance with the mayor or a governor

or some sort of other official to say, hey, look, we're offering up these assets to you. We think there's an opportunity. And maybe you would take them if there was a moment of crisis. But that's not what's happening. It's all about fear. It's all about control. It's all about dominance.

And, you know, it's not solving anybody's problems. In fact, it's only making it worse. I will say I respect the way the responses have been made. I mean, think about this in L.A. They didn't, you know, they didn't come back and riot. The elected officials didn't do anything other than use the legal system to push back on it. To me, they're playing by, they're the, better example in this? Yeah, no, I think you're right. But I think I think the thing that we are

learning in the Trump, this new Trump era, is, you know, how far can your imagination go? And he could very well go there. So, you know, I hope it doesn't happen too, but it seems, you know, that's scary. That is absolutely scary because there is no, every day that the envelope gets stretched on how close we get to democracy. And I think the leading, the leading indicator on that should be the number of court cases that are in state and federal courts across the country. I mean, every action is so far outside the guardrails of normalcy that all this stuff is having to go to courts. I mean, I've lost track of how many court cases there are out there about challenges to,

you know, irrational decision making going on. Yeah. Am I right? I believe that there's a lot of, or there were a lot of federal employees in Georgia. Is that right? Yeah. The CDC is a huge. huge is the CDC's headquartered in, in Atlanta.

So it's been decimated. Yeah, I was going to say. So is that, is that going to be like a talking point or something that you remind people love that Donald Trump is just taking jobs from middle class Americans? Yeah. Look, there's a lot of reasons that folks, I think, are going to push back against Donald Trump that are in the middle, that are moderates. And look, I think there's an interesting opportunity to get Democrats, independence,

and disgusted Republicans on the same page for this 2026 election, because that reason you mentioned, there, lots of federal employees, middle class jobs being evaporated for no reason other than just, you know, some sort of bogey out in the sky called Doge that blew up on the launch pad, pun intended. You know, that and, you know, the cost issues, I mean, we're still seeing skyrocketing costs that are flowing in from every which direction. I mean, there's a bunch of blown promises. And for certain, I think, and look,

nobody in Georgia still has seen proof that this 2020 election was stolen, right? Because it wasn't. There is no proof, right? That's why there's no proof. There's a bad taste in people's mouth. And unfortunately, just enough people voted for Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris in 2024. But I think they've got buyer's remorse. I mean, Donald Trump is a better campaigner than he is a president. And unfortunately, too many people fell for it again. well my hope is is that they don't fall for it a third time and elect a republican and you know whoever we get in there in the primary at post-primary you know we have to make sure because as you said uh Georgia is kind of like one of these bellwether states and and I don't know how you feel about this but you know I do think that when people who attack or democracy get back into office and lead the democracy usually doesn't turn out very well for democracy. So it's really important. We have guardrails in place. And part of that guardrail, as we're seeing with Gavin Newsom and other Democratic governors, really can be the executive of the state.

Yeah. Leadership by sowing seeds of chaos is not leadership. And I think it's easier every minute of every day to see what Donald Trump's plan here is to push this envelope so far. It's irrational behavior. And look, we're going to do our part in Georgia. I feel really strong about it. this campaign, I feel like staying focused on the issues that matter. And my electability is, you know, I think it puts Democrats in an incredibly good spot for us to be able to win, win back the governorship for the first time in 27 years. It's been, I mean, just to quantify 27 years. That means 1998 was the last time a Democrat, Roy Barnes, who is a great person and a good friend, was able to win this race. Well, John Alsoff and Raphael Warnock show that it is

possible. It's possible to win statewide. Joe Biden did it. But I just want to, I want to know with this, you are a man of integrity. And I just think we need people of integrity in office and whether or not you make the primary, we'll see. But I just want to say, thank you for standing up for what's right, because it is so lacking nowadays that people actually just do the right thing rather than what will keep them in power or keep them happy with people in their party. So just thank you for standing up for the country and for what we believe in. Well, thanks for saying that that means a lot. It really truly does.

It's funny, you use the phrase doing the right thing. Our family motto is doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing. And that's actually what I shared in my DNC speech. We're raising three boys. I'm not going to let them look at their dad on TV and say he's lying just because of cheap political games. Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing. And that means in politics too. Well, thank you.

And good luck. Good luck and good luck in your rights. I appreciate it.