Georgia Governor Brian Kemp spoke to the Republican National Committee’s meeting in Nashville on Saturday. He didn’t mince words with the audience. Without saying his name, Kemp told the RNC members that if Trump is the 2024 presidential nominee, the party will not win the election.

One concern is Trump’s continued focus on the 2020 presidential election. Kemp said it is time to move on because voters have.

“Not a single swing voter in a single swing state will vote for our nominee if they choose to talk about the 2020 election being stolen,” Kemp said at the Republican National Committee’s meeting in Nashville.

“To voters trying to pay their rent, make their car payment or put their kids through college, 2020 is ancient history,” he said, adding that voters want to know the GOP’s vision for the future and “couldn’t care less about anyone’s sour grapes.”

He has not endorsed anyone for president yet. Kemp stressed the point that political candidates have to talk about issues that are of interest to voters. Most importantly, the party has to pick a candidate that can win. Republicans can’t govern if they don’t win elections. He delivered the same message when he spoke to an anti-human trafficking event in Marietta, Georgia, on Monday. “I’m looking for somebody that can win,” Kemp told Fox 5 Atlanta. “You can’t govern if you don’t win.”

He’s right. Georgia addressed problems from the 2020 election through its legislative process. Voter turnout was high in the 2022 midterm elections when Kemp soundly defeated Stacey Abrams to win re-election. That was despite Democrats from Joe Biden to Raphael Warnock claiming the election integrity reform bills were Jim Crow 2.0. Independents in Georgia voted for Brian Kemp because of his forward-looking message. Voters did not reward the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Georgia with the Senate seat and Republicans did not win back the majority to control the Senate. Trump did not support Kemp’s re-election because of bad blood from the 2020 election. Kemp refused to interfere in the ballot counting in that election. He let election officials, including the Georgia secretary of state, do their jobs.

Kemp told the RNC that Trump’s legal troubles are a distraction that may cost Republicans the election.

He framed the ongoing criminal inquiries of Trump in Atlanta, New York and Washington as a “distraction that could cost us dearly next year if we allow it” by shifting attention from voter concerns about the economy, public safety and other pressing issues.

Once close allies, Trump made Kemp one of his top targets in 2022 after the governor refused to illegally overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Kemp fended off Trump’s attempt to oust him last year on his way to a reelection victory fueled by support from swing voters.

In the heat of the midterm, Kemp often told voters he wouldn’t say a “bad word” about Trump to avoid alienating his supporters. With a second term safely in hand, Kemp is among party leaders who are pleading with fellow Republicans to move on from Trump.

Kemp was rumored to be interested in running for the GOP nomination for president but last month he ruled that out. He told The Wall Street Journal he was not going to run.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kemp said he isn’t thinking of a presidential run. When asked how he sized up the field, he name-checked just about every contender except for former President Donald Trump, who famously tried — and failed — to oust him last year in his 2022 GOP primary.

“I have a great relationship with (Mike) Pence and a really good relationship with (Ron) DeSantis. Chris Christie came and campaigned for us multiple times, along with a lot of other governors. I know Tim Scott real well. Nikki Haley came and campaigned for us. I’ve known her over the years, and I’ve gotten to meet [Mike] Pompeo a couple of times. So I’m kind of like everybody else, I’m just seeing how things are playing out and keeping an open mind.”

One candidate is missing from that list. “Yeah, I haven’t heard from Trump.”

Kemp drew laughs at the RNC meeting when he noted that the audience would hear from several 2024 candidates – and that “some of them like me more than others.”

“We lost winnable races in swing districts and states that will be crucial to our success next year if we want to win back the White House,” said Kemp, who said the electoral backlash went beyond infighting over “unproven claims of election fraud” or frustration with the establishment.

Republican candidates who talked about “more freedom, better schools, lower taxes, less government and safer streets” had winning messages, he said. “In the other places where the Democrats pulled out unexpected wins, in my opinion, Republicans got distracted.”

Kemp added: “Voters wanted to hear about what Republicans were doing to help them fight through 40-year high inflation – not months and months of debate over whether the 2020 election was stolen.”

Kemp didn’t endorse a candidate. He’s keeping an “open mind” as the 2024 campaign season rolls on. He challenged Republicans to recruit a presidential nominee who gives voters a reason to like Republicans and has a vision for the future, not one who focuses on the past. Most importantly, the candidate has to be able to win the election. “Because we can’t score points if we don’t have the ball.”

It will be interesting to see how long Kemp remains on the sidelines. He has an interest in remaining on the national stage so it’s highly unlikely that he’ll remain silent as the Republican primaries heat up, especially if Trump remains the frontrunner.