Former U.S. Senator and Trump ally David Perdue is set to challenge the Republican incumbent Brian Kemp in the race for Georgia governor, according to local media reports.
Perdue’s announcement comes days after voting rights activist Stacey Abrams announced that she would run for the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination in Georgia.
In a video announcement, Perdue said that Kemp “has failed all of us and cannot win in November.” He also criticized Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has become a target of supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“I’m running for Governor to make sure Stacey Abrams is NEVER Governor of Georgia,” Perdue said in a tweet accompanying the video, reports CNBC News. “We need bold conservatives who will stand up to the woke left, not cave to their radical demands. Join me in this fight to Stop Stacey and Save Georgia.”
A spokesperson for Donald Trump told CNN that the former President will endorse Perdue soon. However, Trump’s ongoing attempts to challenge the election results has some Republicans worried that his attacks on the integrity of the election have depressed GOP voter turnout in Georgia.
And being one of Trump’s “rising stars,” Perdue blamed both Kemp and Raffensperger as sources of division within the Republican Party in Georgia — blaming them for the Democratic statewide gains in the 2020 cycle.
The Kemp campaign released a statement on Sunday, when news of Perdue’s plans first broke, calling Perdue “the man who lost Republicans the United States Senate.”
“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,” Kemp spokesman Cody Hall said.
Even Steve Bannon, another Trump ally, trashed Perdue’s announcement, saying on his Monday podcast that Perdue was “the last person in the world who should be trying to hold Kemp accountable,” adding that Perdue did not support Trump’s lies about the 2020 election ahead of the January runoff.
“There’s no difference between Kemp and Perdue,” Bannon said, charging that Perdue was a “classic country club” type of Republican that Bannon has long railed against.
Democrats, meanwhile, are celebrating the infighting within the Georgia GOP, and this was totally expected to happen. Democrats just need to sit back and watch the show.
