Former U.S. senator David Perdue of Georgia made his plans official Monday to challenge incumbent Brian Kemp for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, launching what is widely anticipated to be an ugly and divisive race centered on Donald Trump’s loss in the state in 2020.
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“Unfortunately today we are divided, and Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are to blame,” Perdue said in a video released Monday morning, referring to the governor and also the secretary of state, two Republicans who refused Trump’s entreaties to reverse his defeat in Georgia last year. “Look, I like Brian. This isn’t personal. It’s simple. He has failed all of us and cannot win in November.”
Perdue asserted that Kemp cannot win against Democrat Stacey Abrams, the Democrat Kemp defeated in 2018 who announced her plans last week to run again. “I’m running for governor to make sure Stacey Abrams is never governor of Georgia,” he said. “Make no mistake. Abrams will smile, lie and cheat to transform Georgia into her radical vision of the state that would look more like California or New York.”
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Trump has been pushing Perdue to challenge Kemp, whom Trump has blasted for not helping him overturn the 2020 election results, based on his false claims that the presidential race was stolen from him. But national Republicans have voiced dread over the idea of a primary in Georgia, particularly because Abrams faces no competition for her party’s nomination. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who leads the Republican Governors Association and has also incurred Trump’s wrath for certifying his state’s 2020 result, has indicated that the group would back the incumbent.
Perdue’s decision to run also could drive a wedge between Kemp and a powerful political family he worked with on his rise to power. Perdue’s cousin, former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, appointed Kemp secretary of state in 2010. The former governor, who went on to serve as Trump’s agriculture secretary, appeared at a rally with Kemp this summer after Kemp backed his effort to become chancellor of the University of Georgia.
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In his announcement, Perdue tried to take advantage of Kemp’s unpopularity among Trump loyalists while also skirting the issue of election fraud. He focused instead on some of the same issues that resonated for Republican Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race last month, including parental rights in schools, low taxes and defeating the “woke left.”
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“My bold vision for our state is very simple: Completely eliminate the state income tax. It’s time. Make our cities and states safe again. Take charge of our schools. Put parents in charge, not the woke left. And fight Biden’s overreaching mandates like Florida’s doing, instead of caving to liberals in the city.”
Perdue also hinted at how he plans to attack Kemp’s handling of election fraud accusations, criticizing the governor for “caving to Abrams” — a reference to a legal settlement the governor signed with Democrats that changed the way signatures are verified on mail ballots.
Trump has falsely claimed that the so-called consent decree prevented local election officials from verifying ballot signatures, when in fact it simply mandated that voters be given a chance to fix their ballots if their signatures are rejected.
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“Instead of protecting our elections, he caved to Abrams and cost us two Senate seats, the Senate majority and gave Joe Biden free rein,” Perdue said in the video. “Think about how different it would be today if Kemp had fought Abrams first instead of fighting Trump.”
The question of blame for the defeats of Perdue and fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler in the January runoffs for the Senate will loom large over the contest.
Perdue and Loeffler were narrowly forced into a runoff in the 2020 election, which they went on to lose to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock, respectively. Trump inserted himself into the contests, attacking the results of the November election and using two pre-runoff rallies to air baseless claims about his defeat that were later blamed for low Republican turnout in the runoffs.
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Perdue, hurt by reporting on stock trades he had made after an early pandemic briefing for senators, refused to debate Ossoff and spent the race’s final days self-isolating after being exposed to the coronavirus. He briefly considered a run for the state’s other Senate seat, which is up for election next year, but backed out in February.
As Stacey Abrams enters governor’s race, Georgia becomes a key 2022 battleground
While Democrat-turned-Republican Vernon Jones quickly announced a run against Kemp, Trump’s Save America PAC conducted polling on a potential Perdue campaign. The results, released in August, found Kemp narrowly ahead of Perdue, with the former senator leaping ahead if Trump endorsed him.
At a Sept. 25 rally in Perry, Ga., in support of GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker, Trump criticized Kemp’s record and even belittled his physical status. Calling Perdue out by name, Trump egged the former senator on to mount a bid to unseat Kemp.
A spokesman for Kemp on Sunday accused Perdue of running to “soothe his own bruised ego,” and risking Republican control of Georgia after bungling his runoff campaign and putting Democrats in charge of the Senate.