Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue is building his campaign around Donald Trump and veering to the right as he tries to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a May 24 GOP primary.
Perdue is trying to stitch together a coalition of Republican malcontents, emphasizing debunked election fraud claims. Critics say that's a change from the millionaire in a denim jacket who won a Senate seat in 2014.
One example of Perdue's path is his embrace of the group VoterGA, which has been protesting Georgia's election systems for years. Perdue also supports a vote on a white-majority neighborhood seceding from Atlanta.
The two candidates squared off in a debate on Sunday.
“The only reason I’m not in the United States Senate is because you caved in and gave the elections to Stacey (Abrams) and the liberal Democrats in 2020,” Perdue said.
Kemp, who denounced calls of election fraud while defending election officials, fired back at Perdue's loss in the 2020 senate race.
“Weak leaders blame everybody else for their own loss instead of themselves,” Kemp said.
Abrams is once again seeking the Democratic nomination to go against either Perdue or Kemp in November. She narrowly lost to Kemp in 2018.
Since the election defeat, Abrams has been an active voting-rights advocate, which caused many Democrats to credit her for President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia in 2020.
