Former President Donald Trump wants to burn down the Georgia GOP. Former Sen. David Perdue has decided that he wants to be the tool to do it.
Perdue is now challenging Gov. Brian Kemp in the Republican primary for governor. There is no policy question or political difference up for debate here: Perdue’s big selling point is that Trump likes him. He blames Secretary of State Brian Kemp for dividing Georgia and accuses Kemp of fighting Trump by refusing to rig the election in Trump’s favor.
He also states that Kemp can’t win in November, which is a little ridiculous. After all, Kemp beat Stacey Abrams in 2018, with a national environment that favored Democrats. Perdue, meanwhile, failed to reach 50% of the vote in his reelection campaign against political mediocrity Jon Ossoff before falling flat on his face in the runoff.
Trump continues to shoulder most of the blame for Republicans losing the Senate. Even if Perdue had a spine and told Trump to quit his antics, Trump was the one who depressed GOP support by convincing his voters to stay home. But Perdue went along with it, and now, he is signing on to Trump’s revenge tour with no regard to the consequences for Georgia.
Even in a year that should favor Republicans, Perdue-Abrams is a far less favorable matchup than Kemp-Abrams. Abrams is a far better candidate and campaigner than empty-suit Ossoff, and Perdue’s lackluster effort in the last election cycle isn’t inspiring. Abrams will also be sure to tie Perdue to Trump as often as possible, hoping to bleed away his support in the suburbs, which is exactly how President Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020.
But what if Perdue doesn’t even win the primary? Trump is already saying that such a scenario would only be possible because the election was “stolen.” Surely, Trump (with Perdue’s help) would convince his voters to stay home again. After all, if he sabotages Kemp’s chances against Abrams, that would prove the ludicrous claim that he couldn’t beat Abrams. It’s a lose-lose scenario, all because Perdue wants to please someone who lives in Florida.
The only way Republicans could ruin their natural advantages in 2022 is with self-sabotage, and Trump enjoys tearing down Republicans more than Democrats. It was obvious that he would support some election conspiracy theorist kook to primary Kemp, but the fact that Perdue volunteered to do it threatens the unity that Republicans need and that Perdue is pretending to care about.
