Perdue Challenge For Governor Primary Nod An Attempt To 'Carry Trump's Water': Duncan

ATLANTA, GA — Former Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue plans to challenge Brian Kemp for governor in the coming state GOP primary election, while critics see the move as doing Donald Trump's bidding.

Perdue is positioning himself as a better candidate than Kemp to defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams — who announced her second candidacy for the post last week — in a Nov. 8, 2022, general election.

Monday morning, he officially posted his announcement to Twitter: “I'm running for governor to make sure Stacey Abrams is NEVER governor of Georgia.”

Late Sunday, a website and text updates were launched for a Perdue governor's campaign, proclaiming him “a bold conservative to unite Georgia” and inviting people to “join our team to stop Stacey Abrams," the likely Democratic nominee.

Perdue, who lost his seat in a January runoff election to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, seeks to unseat Kemp in the April 2022 Georgia GOP primary, in which he will also face former Democratic state senator and DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan took to CNN Monday morning to defend Kemp's administration and decry Perdue's candidacy as a vengeful ploy orchestrated by the former president.

“He's going to try to carry Donald Trump's water on the conspiracy stuff,” Duncan said. “This is a short-term sugar high. It continues to disrupt us, and it's another embarrassing example of our fascination with self-inflicted wounds.”

Trump has repeatedly assailed Kemp, saying the governor didn't do enough to overturn President Joe Biden's electoral victory in Georgia. And Trump’s political action committee claimed earlier that Perdue could beat Kemp in a Republican primary if he had Trump's endorsement.

“The MAGA base will just not vote for him after what he did with respect to election integrity and two horribly run elections, for President and then two Senate seats,” Trump said in a recent statement. “But some good Republican will run, and some good Republican will get my endorsement, and some good Republican will WIN!”

But Duncan said Perdue should own the defeat that helped give control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats.

“He's the only one to blame for losing his last election to Jon Ossoff,” Duncan said. “He ran the worst campaign ever, and that’s his fault and not Brian Kemp’s.

The big prize from the Republican contest in the spring will be who gets to meet Abrams on an increasingly polarized ballot that also will include Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock versus the eventual GOP candidate to emerge from the choices of UGA football star Herschel Walker, state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, and Atlanta business owner Kelvin King, as well as a potential referendum to de-annex Buckhead from Atlanta and form a new city.

Perdue has publicly been encouraged by Trump to run and has been flirting with running for governor for months. Supporters of the 71-year-old former senator say they believe Perdue can beat Abrams, while Kemp can't.

“Perdue can bring together the Trump base and those Republicans, independents, and moderate Democrats who will find Abrams too radical,” former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote on Nov. 12. “Perdue is the one candidate who can defeat Abrams.”

But Kemp is promising an all-out brawl as he tries to win a second term, with Kemp spokesperson Cody Hall saying Perdue is running only to “soothe his own bruised ego” over his loss to Ossoff.

Hall branded Perdue “the man who lost Republicans the United States Senate.”

As recently as June, Perdue was supporting Kemp, introducing him at the state Republican Party convention. Kemp said last week he hoped Perdue “was a man of his word” when it came to that support.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.