EXCLUSIVE — Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp insists that “the road to the White House will run through Georgia.”

And Kemp, the popular conservative two-term governor of the crucial southeastern state, insisted in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital: “There is no way for former President Trump to win, or for any Republican to get to 270 (electoral votes) without Georgia.”

Kemp, interviewed Tuesday on the eve of Vice President Kamala Harris’ two-day bus tour of Georgia, said his state “should be a win-win state if we have all the mechanisms in place that we need. And I’m working hard to provide that in many ways and win the Republican vote.”

“I believe we cannot afford four more years of (President) Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and (Minnesota Gov.) Tim Walz. That would be worse than Biden and Harris, in my opinion,” Kemp argued.

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Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia is interviewed by Fox News Digital on June 3, 2024 in Chalmette, Louisiana. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

The governor was interviewed days after Trump praised Kemp in a social media post “for all of his help and support in Georgia, where a win is so critical to the success of our party and, more importantly, our country.”

“I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the Republican presidential candidate added.

Trump’s comments prompted a major change in the Georgia governor’s stance.

Two years after his 2020 election defeat to President Biden, in which he also narrowly lost Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state.

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Trump toned down the criticism in 2022 after Kemp crushed Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in the Republican primary for the state’s governorship.

But earlier this month, Trump railed against Kemp for 10 minutes at a rally in Atlanta, just steps from the Georgia Capitol. Trump blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count, but also for failing to stop a prosecutor from charging the former president with trying to overturn the results.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio (left) greets former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, during a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta on August 3, 2024. (AP photo/John Bazemore)

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said. “Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.”

Kemp told Fox News: “I don’t know exactly what happened leading up to the rally. I’ve seen a lot of different stories and people’s explanations of what happened.”

“For me, that was a little distraction that was a thing of the past,” Kemp added.

And Kemp said Republicans “need to stay focused on the future. … We need to tell people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are today. And there are a lot of issues that I think you can compare to Kamala Harris and her record.

“I think that’s what we need to continue to focus on. Not on a riot that happened two or three weeks ago.”

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Asked about Trump’s about-face last Thursday, Kemp said: “You have to ask him those questions. I’ve been really consistent over the last couple of years that I would support the ticket, whoever our nominee was, in Georgia. That’s exactly what I’m doing. What I’ve done.”

But Trump’s statement came moments after Kemp appeared on Fox News Channel and reiterated to host Sean Hannity that “we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House.”

When asked Tuesday if he and Trump had been in touch since last week, Kemp replied, “I haven’t spoken to him.”

“I’ve talked to a lot of other people and I think everybody understands where everybody stands and understands that my position hasn’t changed,” Kemp said. “I supported him and the entire slate in Georgia and I still do and I will continue to do so through November.”

Republican strategists agree that to retake Georgia, Trump will need help from Kemp’s well-oiled and well-funded political machine to turn out Republican voters.

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Kemp said he is “working hard” to “reduce the Republican vote and make sure we win this state in November.”

“What that looks like and how that goes really depends on how things develop, which states are involved and who goes where and when,” Kemp added.

“I have other responsibilities within my duties with the Republican Governors Association, such as traveling across the country to raise money to win North Carolina and keep New Hampshire in our camp, and helping with our legislative elections here.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) joins other GOP governors at a Republican Governors Association news conference at an oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, June 3, 2024. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

Kemp also acknowledged that he has sought legal advice from the state attorney general about whether he can remove three conservative members of the five-person panel of the state election board that pushed for and passed a controversial set of new rules that impose additional requirements on county election boards to certify their results.

“We’ve asked the attorney general for an opinion on whether this would be a formal complaint, if you want to call it that, and I’m waiting for a response. So I can’t really comment on that because we’re asking for legal advice,” Kemp told Fox News.

Trump, who has been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, with election interference, praised the three members for their commitment to the new rules, calling them “pit bulls fighting for fairness, transparency and victory.”

Georgia Democrats have called the new rules a “concerted effort to undermine democracy” and have challenged them, saying they could delay the certification of the election and lead to major conflicts.

Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more in our Fox News Digital Election Center.