Speculation is mounting in Georgia that Republican David Perdue is mulling a primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp even as the former senator remains mum on a possible 2022 campaign.
Perdue definitively ruled himself out of the Senate race in February, and Herschel Walker’s entrance into the contest this week would appear to make that decision final. But the former senator has made no such declaration about the governor’s race.
With former President Donald Trump searching for a Republican to challenge Kemp, whom he blames for his loss in Georgia last November, GOP insiders in the state are wondering if Perdue might answer the call.
Perdue, 71, was ousted from the Senate after one term, losing a January runoff to Sen. Jon Ossoff by 1.2 percentage points after finishing ahead of his Democratic challenger, but below the 50% threshold for victory, two months earlier.
The vanquished Republican initially left the door open to challenging Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the midterm elections but bowed out after Trump publicly encouraged Walker, a former professional football player, to run.
HERSCHEL WALKER ENTERS GEORGIA SENATE RACE A MYSTERY TO VOTERS
Some top Georgia Republicans believe Perdue might have reconsidered had Walker taken a pass on the Senate race — and that he might yet reevaluate if the likable, well-known first-time candidate gets tripped up in the primary or drops out.
Walker begins his campaign as the front-runner, but he is up against more seasoned competition in the form of Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black (at least three other Republicans also are declared candidates).
“Folks close to David says he’s waiting for Walker to implode and then get in the Senate race,” a Republican operative in Georgia said.
Perdue has stoked speculation he is open to running for governor more by his visibility in Georgia politics, continuing to be helpful to Republicans who are on the ballot, than by anything he has said.
Discussions about a possible gubernatorial bid additionally spiked after Trump’s political team publicized a poll it commissioned (as seen in Politico) testing a hypothetical GOP primary contest with Kemp, Perdue, and other Republican candidates.
Some veteran Republican strategists in Georgia remain skeptical that Perdue would challenge Kemp, a longtime ally with whom he has shared advisers.
Although the former senator’s previous alliance with the governor might not deter him from a campaign, a lack of desire to jump back into the political arena might. Perdue earned a considerable fortune during his career as a chief executive officer of some of the globe’s most well-known corporations.
Now in his early 70s and after the chaos of the 2020 campaign, some Republicans question whether he has the “fire in the belly.”
“I don’t think he would primary Kemp,” a Georgia GOP insider said. “When I talk to him [recently], he was more inclined to run for Senate than to take on an incumbent Republican governor.”
