'Unprecedented': Perdue entrance shakes up Gov race
'Unprecedented': Perdue entrance shakes up Gov race
Former Senator's challenge to Gov. Kemp sets up a nasty primary
Unprecedented. Scorched-earth. Nasty.
Those are just some of the terms being used to describe the recent development in the race for Georgia governor.
Days after 2018 Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams announced that she would enter the race, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue has entered the Republican primary to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp.
Reports confirming Perdue’s entry began circulating on Sunday, and the former Senator officially kicked off his campaign on Monday. His campaign website also went live late Sunday night.
In his announcement video, which can be viewed above, Perdue seemed to place the blame on Kemp for his re-election defeat. But he saved most of his attacks for Abrams: “Over my dead body will we ever give Stacey Abrams control of our elections again,” he declared.
A former Fortune 500 CEO, Perdue was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, in a Republican wave year that swept the party into control of the U.S. Senate. He would serve one term in the upper chamber — he was on the losing end of a high-dollar runoff election earlier this year.
In the weeks after his loss to now-Sen. Jon Ossoff, media reports indicated that Perdue was considering another run for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat, which was concurrently captured by Democrat Raphael Warnock in the January runoff. He quickly put an end to that speculation, saying that he will not run for Senate in 2022.
He seemed to endorse Gov. Kemp’s re-election bid, which indicated that he had no plans to run for governor himself. But former President Donald Trump has spent the last several months scouting for a primary challenger to Kemp, a one-time ally who has become a pariah in the former President’s inner circle for refusing to side with his unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump weighed in on Perdue’s entrance on Monday, giving his full endorsement to the defeated former U.S. Senator. He had harsh words for Kemp, who was his hand-picked candidate during the 2018 campaign. “Brian Kemp has failed Georgia,” he said. “[Perdue] will not let you down!”
As news of Perdue’s entrance began circulating, the Kemp campaign fired back. Kemp spokesman Cody Hall released the following statement:
“Perdue’s only reason for running is to soothe his own bruised ego, because his campaign for U.S Senate failed to inspire voters at the ballot box — twice. Governor Kemp has a proven track record of fighting the radical left to put hardworking Georgians first, while Perdue is best known for ducking debates, padding his stock portfolio during a pandemic, and losing winnable races.”
The Abrams campaign also chimed in on the big development. “While David Perdue and Brian Kemp fight each other, Stacey Abrams will be fighting for the people of Georgia,” said top Abrams aide Lauren Groh-Wargo. “Both Kemp and Perdue would continue to deprive 500,000 Georgians of health coverage that our taxpayers already paid for.”
The primary is going to be a bruising battle between two ardent conservatives in a state where general elections have been decided by razor-thin margins in recent years. The winner of this primary will have to immediately turn their attention towards Stacey Abrams, who is unlikely to face a competitive primary of her own. So not only will this primary be time-consuming: it will also drain both candidates of essential resources and it could leave them horribly bruised ahead of the general election.
There’s also a chance that Perdue and Kemp will have to duke it out in a runoff election. They are not the only candidates in the Republican primary: former DeKalb County state lawmaker Vernon Jones is also running, and a split in the pro-Trump vote could result in no candidate earning more than 50% of the vote, which would trigger a runoff election between the top two finishers.
This race will also be a major test of former President Trump’s strength in Republican primaries. He had great track records while he was in office, but most Republican candidates have not been as eager to court his endorsement lately. If Perdue loses, it puts Trump in a weak position ahead of the 2022 midterms, the 2024 presidential election and other important contests in the future. In short, his status as the leader of the Republican Party is on the line in this race.