Perdue Stumps in Uvalda
Perdue Stumps in
Uvalda By Deborah Clark Regional Editor Former U.S. Senator turned Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue swung through Montgomery County Saturday on a campaign tour that took him to 17 small communities across the state. Perdue, a Republican who is campaigning to “Stop Stacey Abrams,” told a small crowd gathered at a Uvalda eatery that his Democratic opposition will become Georgia’s next governor “over my dead body.” In a one-on-one talk with The Advance, Perdue reiterated his no state taxes and broadband platform, and responded to questions about his position on economic development below the state’s fall line. Perdue noted, “When broadband started coming into the cities, we as a state never got invested in it.” He noted that during his tenure in the Senate he and his cousin, former Georgia governor and Secretary of Agriculture under the Trump administration, Sonny Perdue, got financing for broadband expansion in portions of the state through the Department of Agriculture. “That was the first step. Broadband is one of the first things we have to do down here in rural Georgia,” he said.
Perdue added, “Economic development around the state is one of our biggest potentials. If you look at the (Savannah) port down here, it is pointing a lot of economic opportunity toward the coast. What we have to do is get broadband in here and make sure every county school system is just as attractive as the best school system in the state.”
Perdue said he favors promoting “the right kind of industry but not blind growth.” He added, “Some states have a habit of making these deals to get big companies in and it doesn’t really benefit the local community. That’s what I am going to be careful with.” He pointed out, “A lot of the money that came out of the COVID-19 crisis was intended to get people through the crisis. In some cases it didn’t get spread evenly at the state level. That is where it broke down, at the state level. What I have said all along is that the federal government is the last resort.”
Perdue said, every one of the 17 stops he and his campaign entourage had made recently was in a small town. Although Perdue did not invest in advertising in the state’s small market media during his failed campaign for re-election to the Senate in 2021, he professed concern for the future of the media and small businesses that had been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. “What we have to do is make sure these communities are healthy. I am very concerned that small businesses be healthy and get the support they need. I want to get rid of the state income tax. I think that will help us as much as anything else in this state to get activity outside the big metropolitan areas.”
Four years ago, with the support of President Trump, Brian Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams to win the governorship. But the governor got on Trump’s bad side in late 2020 after he certified Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in the presidential election after two recounts of the vote.
Trump, who had unsuccessfully urged Kemp and other top Republican officials in the state to overturn the results, warned he would return to Georgia to campaign against Kemp. For months, Trump urged Perdue to challenge the governor, and late last year he endorsed Perdue one day after the former senator launched his gubernatorial bid.
Perdue’s decision poses an epic GOP primary battle with Kemp in a one-time solidly Republican state now considered a top general election battleground. On Monday, Republican gubernatorial candidate and Trump supporter Vernon Jones announced that he is dropping out of the race and endorsed Perdue. Republican Kandiss Taylor of Baxley is also a gubernatorial candidate. Stacey Abrams is the sole Democrat in the race.
Perdue was first elected to the Senate in 2014 but was defeated in his bid for a second term by a razor-thin margin by Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s twin January 5, 2021, runoff elections. Democrat Raphael Warnock edged out Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in the other race, handing the Democrats the Senate majority. Perdue, a native of Macon who was raised in Warner Robins, now lives at Sea Island. Prior to running for the Senate he was CEO of Reebok, Dollar General and Pillowtex.
