Former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) said on the Todd Starnes Show that his campaign to be the next governor of Georgia is a battle against Democrats and the Republican Governor’s Association.
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The following is a rush transcript from The Todd Starnes Radio Show. Listen to the program live Monday – Friday from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m. Click here to listen to the full interview.
TODD: [01:40:27] Our good friend, the former senator from the state of Georgia and now running for Governor, David Perdue. Good to have you back with us, Senator. [01:40:35][7.4]
PERDUE: [01:40:36] Hey, Todd, glad to be here again. Listen, I’m really excited about you coming back to Georgia. We’re going to have a great time up there. Thanks for coming back. [01:40:43][6.8]
TODD [01:40:43] You know, it’s an honor and we have so many listeners out in that part of the country, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We were talking to somebody who called in from Commerce, Senator, and they said, you can just feel the excitement in the air. [01:40:55][12.0]
PERDUE: [01:40:56] Well, people have been here since the day before yesterday actually lining up there. It’s amazing, you know, the gates open at 2 p.m. At 7 p.m., I think, is when the President comes on. I’ve talked to him a couple times this week, and he’s very excited about coming. It’s going to be at Banks County Dragway in Commerce, Georgia. If people in that part of the state, or anywhere really, miss this, they’re going to miss a real treat, because he is fired up about what’s going on in Georgia. He knows how important this Governor’s race is. He knows how important it is to get that Senate seat back and how important it is to put a Republican conservative back in the White House in 2024 to stop this madness, Todd. And he’s coming to Georgia to make sure that everybody knows that we won’t accomplish either of those goals if we don’t win this Governor’s race. [01:41:38][41.9]
TODD: [01:41:40] Now, Senator, what I’m about to say, pretty much sums up where we’re at in this race for the for the Governorship. Donald Trump is endorsing you. He’s backing you. Chris Christie is backing Brian Kemp. That pretty much says what needs to be said. [01:41:58][18.4]
PERDUE: [01:42:01] Well, you know, when Newt Gingrich steps out and endorses somebody, it’s an unusual day. He has endorsed us, and he came out early, actually before I ran, and said I was the only one that could beat Abrams, because Brian Kemp has divided the party. That was before I got in the race. So, yeah, I mean, I’m running against the Chamber of Commerce, the Republican Governors Association, the big corporate entities and the power brokers downtown. I mean, this is a people’s race against politicians. I’m running against a guy who’s been in the governor’s office for four years, but he’s also been an elected official for 20 years. And the things coming out of their campaign now seem a little desperate to us, because I think they know that the current polls are not really reflecting what true primary voters are going to do. If Brian Kemp had not caved in and turned our elections over to Abrams, we really wouldn’t be in this mess. And that’s why Trump has come in to make sure everybody understands what’s on the line. And then, if we get out and vote, we can overwhelm whatever shortcomings are still left in our voting system. [01:43:00][59.1]
TODD: [01:43:02] The polling data is out there, and they have Kemp leading. I’m going to be interested to see those same polls after the Trump rally, because I think that does really help reset the table so that people can focus on, Hey, we’ve got a big primary and we have a decision to make, so I’m going to be curious to see those polling numbers after this rally this weekend. [01:43:24][22.1]
PERDUE: [01:43:25] Well, I will, too, Todd. Only about half the Republican primary voters in Georgia know of the endorsement. We don’t have a lot of money in our campaign. I got in late, and I’m an outsider, and the establishment money is already lined up behind the Governor, and that’s understandable. That’s the way it happens in a transactional race like that. But you know, we’re fighting this at the ground level. I mean, we’re talking to ordinary people every day in places like Nahunta, Georgia. Hahira, Hiawassee, I mean, all over the state. And so, I really sense that this is very much like in 2014, I was down 8 to 10 points by most public pollsters back then, and we won by eight points. And the reason is that polls just can’t pick up all of the concerns that are out here in various groups around the state. So, I’m very happy with where we are and our position. I think President Trump is going to help us this week get the message out there that we do have his endorsement, and then we have got to clean this mess up. I mean, we have got to clean up this election system that has not been totally fixed yet, and the only way to do that is to get me elected. [01:44:24][58.5]
TODD: [01:44:25] Senator, look, I’m a fan of yours, and I would be honored to be out there on the campaign trail if you need me. But I’m curious, what happened at the Senate? You know, you’re going back and analyzing that Senate race. What happened in that Senate race? [01:44:37][12.4]
PERDUE: [01:44:38] Well, it’s pretty simple. In May of 2020, our Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General caved in to Abrams and gave her everything she wanted in a consent decree. And then they changed the other rules that allowed really strange things like money to be given straight to a county election board. So, Zuckerberg gave $55 million to nine different county election boards, mostly Democrat. And we had things like mobile voting busses in Democratic areas. It was unusual, very strange, and they mailed out absentee ballots without having applications. All the things that were really against the rules, against the law, beforehand. And then after 2020, in November, I won that election. Even with all the intransigence, I won by 90,000 votes over a Democrat, and we got 480,000 more votes than Kemp got in 2018, because we pulled everybody together. But, out of five million people that voted we were only a few thousand votes short of the 50 percent rule and got pulled into a runoff. And then so many people, over several hundred thousand people, had lost confidence in the system, because of what Brian Kemp allowed to happen during the November election that they thought their vote was going to be wasted and didn’t come back out in January. So, this is a situation that should not have happened. I put the responsibility at the feet of our Governor, Brian Kemp, and a lot of the madness that is going on in Washington could have been stopped if Brian Kemp had not allowed that election to be run by Stacey Abrams. The 13 soldiers might still be alive, we’d still be energy independent, we would still have the sanctions on Russia. I mean, all the things that you’ve seen played out in the last year. We wouldn’t have $5 a gallon gasoline right now. So, this is the message that I’m taking to the people in Georgia, and they’re responding very positively to it. [01:46:19][101.0]
TODD: [01:46:20] Well, I think it’s going to be a very important speech that you deliver on on Saturday. And you know how this thing goes with the President, He’s going to bring you back up there. It’s going to be a lot of fun. But, I think when people see you on the stage with the president, I think that’s really going to define, Hey, this is this is what is at stake here, and I think your numbers are going to skyrocket after this rally on Saturday. [01:46:46][26.6]
PERDUE: [01:46:48] Well, we’re in a good position right now. I trust the people of Georgia. And you know, this is, like I said, a people versus politician race, but it’s really more than that. It’s about the people who don’t have a voice in their government. They’re fed up with what’s going on in the state. They’re fed up with what’s going on in Washington, and they’re putting a lot of that responsibility at the feet of our Governor and correctly so. So, the power elite, the people who are connected with the government, had really better sit up and listen, because the people are really upset right now about where we are in Georgia, not just on the election, but over things like Buckhead City not being allowed a vote. [01:47:20][32.5]
TODD: [01:47:24] And senator, let me jump in here on that one, because we’ve been covering that story nationally for a while, and I think people were genuinely stunned when they found out it wasn’t the Democrats who stopped that, it was the Republicans in the State House who stopped Buckhead’s annexation. [01:47:39][15.2]
PERDUE: [01:47:40] Just today, the Governor said, when he was asked about where he stands on the Buckhead vote, he said, Well, on that issue, I’m going to keep my powder dry. Well, that’s a career politician trying to get reelected in a primary, and I’ve come out right out of the gate and said, Look, these people deserve a vote. If you’re going to get for other areas of the state the right to have a vote on their own destiny, why in the world would you not do allow Buckhead to do that? Well, the reason is very clear: The Governor and the power downtown, that is tied into the city of Atlanta and the big corporate entities downtown, they’re the big donors of the Governor, and they’re are all tied into that. They do not want Buckhead to separate. The crime in Atlanta is out of control, Todd. I mean, this is outrageous. Rapes are up this year dramatically, murders are up dramatically, and you know, the defunding the police effort has been alive and well in Atlanta for some time now. We have a Mayor who said when he was a city council member, to defund the police, and now he’s the mayor of Atlanta, and nothing is getting any better here. So, people are beginning to hold Governor Kemp responsible, because he’s not stepped out and made his position clear. And because of that, it killed the potential to have a vote about the Buckhead City issue. [01:48:48][67.1]
TODD: [01:48:48] And really, that Buckhead vote was probably more so about getting tough on crime and making sure that you have the police officers patrolling the streets and protecting the businesses. That area is very affluent, and you know what happens when crime starts to happen like that, people will begin to move out of the area and that area will go into decline. So, I’m glad to know that you’re the tough on crime candidate running for the Governor’s office. [01:49:14][25.6]
PERDUE: [01:49:15] Well, we really are. You know, it’s the corruption all the way around. We had a crime in the election in 2020. People broke the law, and nobody’s being investigated or prosecuted. So, I’ve called for an election law enforcement agency. Their sole job would be to enforce election laws and to hold people accountable. People should go to jail over this or what happened in 2020. I also want outside, independent audits of any election that has to be certified. We never had that. And then lastly, I want to get rid of the many machines here if I’m elected, and we’re going to have to run a May election in the November election using them. But just like Virginia, if we get out and vote, we can overwhelm them and make sure that we vote. That’s exactly what happened in Virginia. [01:49:56][40.8]
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