Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is boasting about his lead over Republican primary challenger David Perdue and strength against presumptive Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams in two fresh polls.
Pointing to public polling from Quinnipiac University and a survey for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Kemp campaign emphasized in a memo sent to campaign contributors that the governor is performing better against Abrams than Perdue, a former senator. The memorandum highlights Kemp’s 43% to 36% lead over Perdue in the Quinnipiac poll. Perdue, endorsed in the Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary by former President Donald Trump, was ousted after one term in Washington in a Jan. 5, 2021, runoff election.
“In December, the Perdue campaign released an internal poll conducted by their own pollster that showed Perdue leading in the primary field. Every public poll released since, including our campaign’s internal polling, have proven the Perdue polling operation incorrect,” reads the Kemp campaign’s memo, issued Thursday and obtained by the Washington Examiner.
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In the poll conducted for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp led Abrams 48% to 41%; Perdue led the Democrat 47% to 43%. (The newspaper did not release polling in the Kemp-Perdue race.) In the Quinnipiac survey, Kemp led Abrams 49% to 47%; Perdue and Abrams were knotted up at 48% each.
Kemp and Perdue, former allies, are locked in a bitter feud for the Republican nomination.
At the heart of Perdue’s campaign to depose Kemp after one term is the charge that the governor sat idle while the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes fraudulently awarded to President Joe Biden. Similarly, Perdue blames Kemp for his 2020 loss to now-Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat.
As a part of that pitch, Perdue has argued he is better positioned to defeat Abrams. The former senator claims that his focus on what happened in the 2020 election and preventing a repeat in the future will energize GOP voters, who might sit on their hands if Kemp is renominated.
The governor, who last year enacted an overhaul of Georgia voting laws, vehemently disagrees and is now pointing to the data from Quinnipiac and the largest newspaper in the Peach State to make his point. He continues to raise money to fend off Perdue in the primary and prepare for a hoped-for race against Abrams in the fall.
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“Perdue’s primary campaign message has been that he is the only candidate who can beat Stacey Abrams in November,” the Kemp memo reads. “Public data, by responsible polling firms, continues to show that is simply not true.”
