Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former Sen. David Perdue faced off in a fiery debate Sunday night, viciously attacking each other’s character and rehashing old wounds from the 2020 presidential election.
During the hourlong televised debate, the candidates also bickered over who is better for the Republican Party, who can beat Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in a November matchup, and who is to blame for flipping the state blue. At one point, the debate devolved into a shouting match between the governor and former business executive.
Perdue launched his campaign in December to challenge the sitting Republican governor. He did so almost entirely on the claim that Kemp refused to overturn the 2020 presidential election results that would have illegally given former President Donald Trump the win. Trump has repeatedly raked Kemp over the coals for his decision, claiming he turned his back on his party and the country. Trump also vowed revenge, and his political action committee recently gave $500,000 to a group running attack ads against the governor.
During Sunday night’s debate, Perdue, who lost a 2021 Senate runoff election against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, blamed Kemp directly for Trump’s loss as well as his own defeat. Kemp called Perdue “weak” and chastised him for trying to avoid accountability.
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“Weak leaders blame everybody else for their own loss instead of themselves,” Kemp said.
He later added, “The fact is, if you hadn’t lost your race to Jon Ossoff, we wouldn’t have lost control of the Senate, and we wouldn’t have the disaster that we have in Washington right now.”
The Perdue-Ossoff race was supposed to be an easy win for Republicans in the reliably red state. Perdue had hitched his wagon to Trump in 2016, and it paid off, but when he tried it again four years later, it backfired and cost him his Senate seat. Until then, Perdue had been known as Georgia’s political giant-killer. When he ran first for the senate in 2014, he overcame incredible odds to beat three Republicans in the primary and Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, in the general election.
Following his 2021 loss, Perdue attempted to capitalize on the Kemp hate that had been growing in the state, but his campaign has since fizzled out.
Behind in polls and lagging in fundraising, Perdue had very little to lose by mudslinging his way through Sunday night’s debate. And Trump, once his biggest cheerleader, has admitted that Perdue, a former Fortune 500 CEO, is a “long shot.”
Republicans will head to the polls on May 24 to make their decision. If Kemp fails to lock in more than 50% of the vote, he and Perdue will go head-to-head in a June runoff. The winner will face Abrams, who narrowly lost to Kemp in 2018.
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Perdue reminded voters of the race and said Kemp “barely beat Stacey Abrams in ’18, when I helped him secure President Trump’s endorsement, which he still today doesn’t think helped him at all.”
