Perdue invokes Trump election claims in Georgia GOP primary
RINGGOLD, GA. » As he met with voters recently in a part of northwest Georgia where Donald Trump is still very popular, David Perdue invoked his belief in the lie that elections in 2020 and 2021 were stolen from the former president and himself.
“First of all, it was stolen,” Perdue said. “The facts are coming out.”
When the rally was over, Perdue visited the storefront office of a group that similarly espouses election falsehoods. Perdue posted a photo on his Facebook page of himself beaming as the group’s cofounder talks under a banner proclaiming “a legal vote requires the rule of law.”
Perdue veers right
The emphasis on false election claims is a reminder of how far Perdue has veered to the right ahead of next month’s primary against incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. He’s evolved from a business-minded conservative who won a U.S. Senate seat in 2014 by focusing on federal spending to a hardliner who associates with conspiracy theorists.
That tracks with the broader shifts in the Republican Party under Trump. But some in the GOP warn that the fixation on past elections will do little to win a general election in Georgia, where moderate voters are crucial.
“I think David Perdue had a broad appeal in 2014,” said Eric Tanenblatt, former chief of staff to exGeorgia Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and a former fundraiser for David Perdue who is backing Kemp in the primary. “I think he was a lot more relatable because he was talking about issues that were a lot more appealing to the broader electorate.”
Perdue, who was personally courted by Trump to enter the race as retribution for Kemp not going along with election lies, is lagging ahead of the May 24 primary. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Tuesday found Kemp leading Perdue 53% to 27% among likely voters. While that’s a sizable margin, it just barely puts Kemp above the 50% threshold he would need to avoid a runoff.
Still, Perdue, the former chief executive of Reebok and Dollar General, insists he hasn’t changed as he eyes the governor’s mansion.
“Even in the Senate, I was an outsider,” Perdue said in Ringgold. “I was never part of the good ol’ boys club up there, trust me.”
Still, Perdue’s sharpest focus is on claims that Georgia’s 2020 presidential election and 2021 Senate runoffs, in which Perdue lost to Democrat Jon Ossoff, were fraudulently won by Democrats. No credible evidence has emerged to support Perdue and Trump’s claims of mass voter fraud. Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said the election was fair, and the former president’s allegations were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.
During the speech, he touted his lawsuit that seeks to unseal physical ballots for examination in Atlanta’s Fulton County, making allegations without evidence that poll workers took bribes and people were paid to gather and deliver ballots illegally.
An outsider
Perdue in 2014 was channeling some of the same businessman-outsider themes that Trump harnessed so powerfully two years later. But he was more subtle then, introducing himself to voters as a “different type of person” who cared most about reforming federal spending.
Perdue wasn’t generally seen as the most conservative choice in 2014. After winning the primary, he defeated Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn, whom he said he still considered a friend years later, a nod to a bipartisanship out of vogue among hardcore partisans.
While Perdue was considered a strong conservative in the Senate, there were times he could reach across the aisle. He sought to curb school shootings by promoting better practices for campus safety and security. Perdue offended some conservatives by voting for $900 billion in additional COVID-19 relief in December 2020, while locked in a runoff with Ossoff.
Perdue was never afraid to play to the far right. In 2016 he asked an evangelical Christian audience to pray for President Barack Obama, citing a psalm that calls for vengeance on the enemies of God: “Let his days be few, and let another have his office.” Perdue denied wishing actual harm on the president.
Today, Perdue blames inflation, high gas prices, immigration and American deaths in Afghanistan on Kemp’s failure to block Democrats from winning in Georgia. He warns only he can bring Trump voters to the ballot box to defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams. And he says that without Republican control in Georgia, a Republican will lose in 2024.
“You can’t win the presidency, a Republican can’t win, without Georgia,” Perdue said. “And if Stacey Abrams wins this governor’s job, no Republican’s going to win this state for president. Just trust me.”
After Perdue finished speaking to Catoosa County Republicans, he and his wife drove the 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) to an office of VoterGA, wedged between a discount grocer and a Dollar Tree. VoterGA has been protesting Georgia’s election system for years, including a failed lawsuit to toss a previous generation of electronic voting machines. VoterGA cofounder Garland Favorito has risen to prominence with Trump’s relentless focus on fraud claims.
Favorito has also questioned the official version of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Perdue’s embrace of VoterGA could be trouble in a general election in closely divided Georgia, but many primary voters appreciate his stances. Bonnie Evans, a Fort Oglethorpe retiree, said he liked Perdue’s promises to bolster the state police and crack down on immigrants in the country illegally.
“I’m a 100% for him,” Evans said.