SINKING SHIP

How the mighty have fallen. When David Perdue won the 2014 GOP primary for the U.S. Senate, it was a surprising win. After all, outside of sharing the same last name as his cousin Sonny (the former Georgia governor and agriculture secretary in the Trump administration), Perdue had never held public office. Several of his competitors were sitting congressmen, such as Jack Kingston and Phil Gingrey. Despite the view that Kingston was more conservative than Perdue, the latter prevailed in the runoff, winning 50.9% of the vote, thanks to business-friendly voters in the Atlanta area.

In the general election, he easily defeated Michelle Nunn (daughter of longtime Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn). He established himself as a

standard-bearer conservative voice in the upper chamber of Congress.

And then, the 2020 election happened. To maintain Donald Trump’s support, Perdue had to go along with the “stolen election” narrative that wound up backfiring in the two Senate races. Perdue and Kelly Loeffler lost to Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock in runoffs, handing the majority in the Senate to the Democrats.

Trump targeted Gov. Brian Kemp for refusing to help overturn the results in Georgia, and when the time came for a primary opponent, Trump looked to Perdue. Trump assumed enough anger among the electorate to unseat Kemp, but that doesn’t look like it will happen. Not even close.

Relying primarily on the false stolen election narrative, not only did Perdue not find any footing, but it’s failed to resonate at all. In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Kemp leads Perdue by 22 points, an astonishing figure. The last four polls have Kemp well above the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff.

Unlike J.D. Vance, who got a boost from a Trump endorsement, it is unlikely to work out for David Perdue. As a result, we rate his campaign a sinking ship.

– Jay Caruso