ATLANTA – Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue touts his endorsement by former President Donald Trump in the first television ad of his campaign to oust incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp in May’s GOP primary.
Trump appears on camera in the ad, released Tuesday, criticizing Kemp for refusing to help overturn the results of the 2020 presidential voting in Georgia that saw President Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the Peach State since Bill Clinton in 1992.
“Brian Kemp let us down,” Trump says in the ad. “We can’t let it happen again.”
In the second half of the ad, Trump goes on to describe Perdue, who served one term in the U.S. Senate before losing to Democrat Jon Ossoff early last year, as “an outstanding man. He’s tough. He’s smart. He has my complete and total endorsement.”
Kemp, who is seeking a second term as governor, has dismissed Perdue’s campaign as fueled by anger over his loss to Ossoff.
Besides Kemp and Perdue, other Republican candidates running for governor include former state Rep. Vernon Jones, educator Kandiss Taylor and human resources executive Catherine Davis.
The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination unopposed.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.