Former Senator David Perdue announced on Monday that he’s mounting a primary challenge against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican.
On Wednesday, Perdue quickly made clear how he plans on differentiating himself from Kemp, telling Axios that he would not have certified the state’s 2020 presidential results, which broke for Joe Biden.
Despite a lack of evidence, former President Donald Trump has insisted that the Georgia vote was fraudulent. He has repeatedly attacked Kemp and other GOP leaders for failing to pursue his baseless conspiracy theories.
But Perdue seems willing to do Trump’s bidding. Explaining why he wouldn’t have accepted the Georgia results, he told Axios: “Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for.”
In an opinion piece, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin writes:
The results were investigated in multiple audits and court cases. There was no fraud.
Perdue is saying the quiet part out loud. Given the same circumstances in 2024 — a clean election with close results in key states — Republicans would seek to undo the will of the voters, call on the House of Representatives to “fix” the election and thereby sink our democracy.
Trump endorsed Perdue Monday night, writing in a statement “David Perdue has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will not let you down!”
More from Rubin:
Every Republican endorsed by Trump will be expected to do his or her part — whether it is a state legislator voting for an alternate slate of electors, or a governor refusing to certify the voters’ pick, or a member of Congress challenging electoral votes. Even Republicans not selected by Trump will be under incredible pressure to go along with such a coup attempt — just as so many felt compelled to object to the electoral votes in 2020 and to refuse to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection.
A spokesman for Kemp called Perdue a “desperate, failed former politician who will do anything to soothe his own bruised ego.”
Perdue lost his January 2021 re-election bid to Jon Ossoff. Perdue’s defeat was considered a major upset.
