The Story:
Georgia holds its party primary elections on May 24. There will be a number of contests worth watching, but perhaps the most contentious is the Republican contest for that party’s nomination to be the Governor. The incumbent, Brian Kemp, is blamed by many supporters of former President Trump because Kemp’s failure to contest Biden’s win in that state. The Trumpist challenger to Governor Kemp is David Perdue, a former Senator whose re-election effort was defeated in 2020 (with a run-off vote in January 2021).
Background:
Perdue, a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been a chief executive officer of two household-name companies: Reebok and Dollar General.
During his one term in the U.S. Senate Purdue distinguished himself chiefly as a loyal soldier for President Trump.
In the year-and-weeks since Trump’s departure from the White House, Perdue has been vocal in support of Trump’s claim that the election was stolen from him. Complicit in that theft, on Perdue’s view, was Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who famously rejected Trump’s demand that he “find” Trump the necessary votes to win the state. Perdue is more-or-less explicit in his view that Raffensperger, and his boss Governor Brian Kemp, should have done roughly that.
The Thing to Know:
At present, polls are showing Governor Kemp well ahead of Perdue. One recent survey shows Kemp at 44% of Republican votes and Perdue at 35%. Most of the remainder were undecided, though Kandiss Taylor took 3% of the vote.
