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Perdue's reason for challenging Kemp
Former Sen. David Perdue said he threw his hat into the ring to run as the Republican candidate for governor against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp to heal a divided party.
ATLANTA - David Perdue said he has heard from people worried that his decision to enter the Georgia governor's race might further divide the Republican Party, but he does not share that concern.
"I had that opinion given to me quite often as we made the announcement," said Perdue. "My comeback was basically, 'Look guys, I'm not dividing this party any further, it's already divided.'"
The former U.S. Senator said he jumped into the race in December because he thinks he is the candidate who can unite Republicans. Perdue made the announcement just days after Democrat Stacey Abrams revealed she would run again in 2022.
"I tried all year to bridge this gap that divided our party and I just decided at that point that Brian Kemp was not going to be able to pull us together," said Perdue. "So, when Stacey got in, in order to avoid the train wreck of having her become governor, I decided to give Republican conservatives a choice and that's what I've done."
Perdue said he believes he is the best Republican to defeat Abrams in the general election because he amassed 2.4 million votes during his Senate re-election bid in November 2020. He failed, however, to reach the 50% mark required to avoid a runoff and eventually lost to Democrat Jon Ossoff in January 2021.
In contrast, Gov. Kemp only got 1.9 million votes when he won election in 2018, though about a million more voters cast ballots in 2020.
"We did that by bringing together all different parts of the Republican Party. We got regular Republicans, we got new people in the suburbs and we got those people who were Trump voters," said Perdue.
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One-on-one with Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue
David Perdue says a primary fight can't further divide a party that's already split. He said Gov. Brian Kemp can't unite the party or beat Stacey Abrams.
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Perdue in the 2022 race over Gov. Kemp after publicly blaming Kemp for Trump's failure to win Georgia in 2020.
A recent poll of likely Republican voters by the Trafalgar Group showed Gov. Kemp had about a 10 point lead over Perdue, but the same poll showed a significant number of people were not aware of Trump's endorsement.
"It says that Brian Kemp's in trouble. I think the majority of Republicans out there know that he's divided the party and can't win," said Perdue. "We've got a lot of work to do here to make sure everybody knows that I have Trump's endorsement. More than that I want them to know my vision for Georgia."
Perdue said his main campaign issues are voter integrity, eliminating the state income tax and giving parents more control over what their children learn in school. He also announced a proposal this week to institute term limits for statewide office holders.
"I believe it brings fresh, new thought. I want term limits to make sure that we don't have this career politician entrenchment that we saw manifested just last year when the governor had the state legislature pass this incumbent protection act that allowed them to do some things fundraising-wise that a challenger might not. That was before I got in the race," Perdue said.
Perdue also responded to criticism from the Kemp campaign about a new Perdue ad that included a clip of Perdue shaking hands with a former law enforcement officer arrested on child pornography charges in 2020.
"It was just a simple mistake. We took it down. I'm really surprised and disappointed the governor wanted to make that a political statement," said Perdue.
The primary is scheduled for May 24.
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