CUMMING, Georgia — Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue’s brush with the coronavirus couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time.
Perdue, 71, has been quarantining with his wife Bonnie since Thursday after a member of his team tested positive for COVID-19. The move has taken him off the campaign trail less than a week before his Tuesday runoff against Democratic filmmaker Jon Ossoff. And it’s one of two Georgia races to be decided on Jan. 5 that will determine the Senate’s balance of power during the next Congress.
Perdue’s absence is conspicuous as prominent Republicans fan out across the state to stump for him and appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler ahead of her contest against Democratic Rev. Raphael Warnock, including President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Monday.
At a Loeffler rally with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the parking lot of Cumming’s Good ol’ Days Bar and Grill, retired industrial engineer Edward Murray Jr. expressed concern Perdue was missing crucial opportunities to convert any remaining undecided voters.
“It’s not good,” Murray, 69, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s going to be hard. It needs to be in-person. It’s better for the candidate to be out and about.”
More than 3 million Georgians had their say during the runoff’s early voting period, which concluded on Jan. 1. But roughly 5 million Georgians took part in the Nov. 3 elections. And a mid-December Survey USA poll suggested 3% of respondents were still undecided, though an Emerson College poll fielded around the same time indicated there were fewer uncertain Georgians. That survey found only 1% of participants were unsure.
The data was buttressed by Cruz on Saturday when the senator asked Loeffler’s crowd how many attendees had already voted. Most raised their hands. Some joked they would cast a second ballot.
“People’s minds are made up,” school bus driver Bruce Brown, 70, said.
Poll aggregator RealClearPolitics has Ossoff leading Perdue by an average of 0.8 percentage points, while FiveThirtyEight has the investigative reporter ahead by 1.2 points. The $457 million projected to be spent before Tuesday encouraged an additional 115,000 Georgians to vote early who didn’t take part in their Nov. 3 contest. And Perdue only won their first round by 88,000 votes or with 49.7% support, falling short of the majority threshold required to avoid a runoff.
Yet accountant Teresa Garner, 64, wasn’t worried about Perdue’s chances in Georgia, where a Democrat hasn’t prevailed in a statewide general election runoff since 1992 because the party’s turnout has historically dropped off.
“I don’t think it will affect it one way or the other. And he’s been on Fox all weekend long,” she said.
During his Fox News interview, Perdue sought to ease any Republican anxieties regarding his prospects after pulling out of an appearance alongside South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham 30 minutes before it was scheduled to start following his staffer’s diagnosis. He told the network he, his wife, and his aides had been tested regularly and were taking other precautions, including wearing masks. The Perdues’ isolation was out of an abundance of caution, he insisted.
“It’s terrible timing, but we are not going to miss a step. We’re going to participate in all these events as if I were there,” Perdue said. “This is just part of the year that we’ve been in.”
For Barbara Cure, 57, “somebody getting sick or quarantining” was irrelevant to her decision concerning whether she would vote for them or not. She added Perdue was “actually doing the right thing,” according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“Life happens to people in ways that’s not by your choice. And I don’t care whether you wear a mask or obviously don’t wear a mask,” the IT consultant said, questioning the effectiveness of unwashed face coverings. “Why pretend? I’m tired of pretending.”
Keith Sharp, 63, who considered the coronavirus to be “no worse or less” than the seasonal flu, believed Perdue had to quarantine “for appearances.”
“He’s doing the smart political thing,” he said.
Perdue’s contact with COVID-19 follows Loeffler’s break from her campaign in November after she tested positive for the virus before returning an inconclusive result.
Perdue, a former businessman, is seeking his second term in the Senate. Republicans have a 50-48 seat advantage in the chamber. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could break any ties if both Georgia Democrats emerge victorious on Jan. 5.
