Trump-backed Perdue challenges Kemp in Georgia GOP primary
ATLANTA » Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue will challenge Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for governor, he announced Monday, setting up a 2022 Republican primary fight while Democrat Stacey Abrams is likely to await the winner.
Perdue had been flirting with the bid for months, encouraged publicly by former President Donald Trump. The 71-year-old former senator said he was running to stop Abrams from becoming governor, and claimed Kemp would lose to her in November because some hard-core Trump Republicans oppose Kemp.
“To fight back, we simply have to be united,” Perdue said. “Look, I like Brian. This isn’t personal. It’s simple: He has failed all of us and cannot win in November.”
Kemp is promising an all-out brawl as he tries to win a second term, with Kemp spokesperson Cody Hall saying Perdue is running only to “soothe his own bruised ego” over losing his Senate seat.
“The man who lost Republicans the United States Senate and brought the last year of skyrocketing inflation, open borders, runaway government spending, and woke cancel culture upon the American people now wants to lose the Georgia governor’s office to the national face of the radical left movement,” Hall said.
Perdue said he would campaign on a platform of eliminating the state income tax, enhancing public safety, and empowering parents’ ability to control what is taught in public schools.
But he hit most strongly on hard feelings over Trump’s electoral loss, as well as January Senate losses by Perdue to Democrat Jon Ossoff, and by Republican Kelly Loeffler to Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Perdue blamed Kemp for the losses, with a spokesperson pointing to a settlement agreement Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board made with the state Democratic Party in March 2020 in which the state agreed to set uniform standards for examining signatures on mail-in absentee ballots. Kemp was not a party to the lawsuit.
“Think about how different it would be if Kemp had fought Abrams first before the election instead of fighting Trump,” Perdue said. “Kemp caved before the election and the country is paying the price today.”
Trump-aligned Republicans say the changes led to a smaller share of absentee ballots being rejected statewide, allowing President Joe Biden to win.
Perdue was supporting Kemp as recently as June, introducing him at the state Republican Party convention. Kemp said Thursday that he could not control whether Perdue would be “a man of his word.”
Perdue’s entry could drag Kemp to the right as he vies for primary support. Kemp had hoped to use Abrams’ Wednesday entry to the governor’s race to rally Republicans to his side. But Trump has repeatedly targeted Kemp, saying Kemp did not do enough to overturn Biden’s electoral victory in Georgia.
Trump’s political action committee commissioned a poll claiming that with Trump’s endorsement, Perdue could beat Kemp in a Republican primary. The former president added fuel to that fire at a Sept. 25 rally in Perry, Ga., when he pointed out Perdue among a clutch of party leaders.
On Monday Trump issued a new statement lauding Perdue as a “great senator.”
“I can’t imagine that Brian Kemp, who has hurt election integrity in Georgia so badly, can do well at the ballot box (unless the election is rigged, of course).” the former president said. “He cost us two Senate seats and a presidential victory in the great state of Georgia.”