Like a lot of Georgia Republicans, Karynn Walker reacted with a resigned sigh to the latest turn of her state’s seemingly never-ending GOP civil war.
Walker, a party activist in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, admires the state’s incumbent Republican governor, Brian Kemp. She also admires David Perdue, the state’s former Republican U.S. senator.
For years, it was not a problem for Republicans to support both of these prominent politicians. But that changed on Monday with a declaration of war—Perdue’s announcement that he will challenge Kemp in the GOP primary for governor next June.
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The move immediately set up a scorched-earth contest that will scramble internal alliances and cause headaches—perhaps literally—as Republicans drain energy, resources, and morale ahead of an expected rematch with Stacey Abrams, a national Democratic star.
“I don’t know what to do,” Walker told The Daily Beast. “I’m going to have a whole lot of aspirin beside me, because I really do like both of them.”
But Georgia Republicans will have to choose. And that choice will come down to just how much the party faithful believe the most important qualification for elected office is fealty to Donald Trump and his lie of a stolen 2020 election.
Trump has never forgiven Kemp for refusing to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia. He goaded Perdue to run against him; in his launch video, the ex-senator torched Kemp for not standing up for “election integrity,” even blaming Kemp for his own runoff loss in January.
There is little pretense, from any corner of the party, that the primary ahead is about anything other than Trump. That’s what makes this latest round of Peach State infighting so similar to the previous ones. And what worries Republicans is that the result this time will be the same: Democratic victory.
Jason Shepherd, who chaired the Cobb County GOP during the 2020 election, saw firsthand how Trump’s willingness to turn against anyone deemed insufficiently loyal ripped the party apart and led to their loss in the January runoffs.
He’s feeling a sense of déjà vu: Kemp vs. Perdue, to him, looks like a “bruising primary” certain to make all parts of the party “just furious with each other” while Abrams glides above the fray.
“I guess we’ll give Donald Trump what he wants,” Shepherd said, invoking an offhand remark from Trump at a rally months ago. “Stacey Abrams instead of Brian Kemp.”
Democrats are hardly taking the race for granted, but couldn’t help but relish the prospect of a months-long Trump cage fight in the GOP while Abrams tells her story and focuses on actual issues.
“They are going to continue, I guess, trying to figure out which one of them can out-Trump each other,” Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA), the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, told The Daily Beast. “And we're going to continue to make sure that we're working to represent Georgians.”
Many Republicans blame Perdue for his willingness to carry out Trump’s grudge and ensure mayhem to come. “I’m disappointed,” said Buzz Brockway, a former GOP state legislator and candidate for secretary of state. “I watched [Perdue’s] announcement video and it was plain to me that it’s about one thing, and that’s Donald Trump. This is about exacting revenge.”
One Georgia Republican, speaking anonymously to more candidly describe feelings in the GOP, had a harsher assessment of the Fortune 500 CEO turned archconservative senator.
Georgia Republican Senate candidate David Perdue (R-GA) speaks to the crowd during a campaign rally in December 2020.
Jessica McGowan“David Perdue is so detached from reality he thinks Brian Kemp’s responsible for his losing a winnable race, Donald Trump won Georgia, and he can still campaign as an outsider after six years doing nothing on the inside of the U.S. Senate,” the Republican said. “I guess the view from his golf course isn’t quite so satisfying when he can’t see past his own ego.”
In a further sign of the internal toxicity of today’s GOP, however, Perdue has his own bruises from the last year of Trump-driven infighting—inflicted from his right—which make this messy race even messier.
When reached on Tuesday, Debbie Dooley, a longtime conservative activist in Georgia, said she was “feeling the Vern”—a reference to Vernon Jones, the Democrat turned Trump disciple who is also running in the governor primary.
“The grassroots feels that Vernon Jones is more the Trump-type candidate than David Perdue is,” Dooley said. “They want someone that is an unabashed outspoken fighter. That isn’t David Perdue.”
That feeling stems from Perdue’s position on the 2020 election during his runoff campaign against now-Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). Then, Perdue blessed Trump’s claims of election fraud—even calling for the resignation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger—but that was not enough in the eyes of many hardcore Trump supporters, who in the days after Perdue’s announcement fumed on Facebook that Perdue was the “Definition of a RINO,” and “just another Kemp.”
For some, the Trump endorsement might not matter. Perdue’s claims that he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results if he were governor might not either. If Jones stays in the race—and Dooley believes he will—he could, at least, play a spoiler role and force a runoff after the Republican primary in June 2022.
An early poll from Atlanta TV station FOX 5, released on Wednesday, showed Kemp starting with 44 percent support, compared to 22 percent for Perdue and 11 percent for Jones. But when respondents were informed of Trump’s endorsement, Perdue’s numbers jumped to 34 percent—even with Kemp.
In a statement provided to The Daily Beast, Cody Hall, a Kemp spokesperson, said Kemp would be “running on his record of putting hardworking Georgians first,” and ticked through his conservative policy wins on “election integrity,” abortion, COVID, and others.
Kemp, said Hall, “is the only candidate in the race who has already beaten Stacey Abrams once, and he’s the only one who can beat her next year by uniting Georgians around a conservative record of results.”
But Perdue backers argue that it would be political malpractice to nominate Kemp, given the dissatisfaction brewing in the grassroots.
Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker and Georgia native, supports Perdue, and he told The Daily Beast his clear sense is that Kemp wouldn’t survive a rematch with Abrams.
“When you get down to it, and Stacey Abrams is the alternative, which of these two can more decisively unify the Republican Party?” said Gingrich. “Coming out of the primary, Perdue will be much more capable of unifying the whole party.”
Asked how a primary against a sitting governor would help foment unity, Gingrich argued Perdue’s campaign has been “cheerful and positive” while Kemp has been “so harsh and so dishonest.” Gingrich still defended Perdue’s combative opening video where he blamed Kemp for just about everything Trump Republicans loathe.
It is not surprising, said Brockway, that this race is getting so personal so quickly. Perdue and Kemp are largely cut from the same political cloth, both well-heeled pro-business conservatives with lines to the establishment and grassroots alike.
“The reason Kemp-Perdue is going to get nasty is because they agree on 95 percent of the issues,” said Brockway. “You’re going to argue over where you disagree, which is going to boil down to Trump.”
And it is clear that Perdue’s challenge will supercharge what was already certain to be a cash war. Last year’s Georgia Senate contest was the most expensive in U.S. history, with candidates and outside groups spending a combined $1 billion. And between the upcoming gubernatorial and Senate races, 2022 is stacking up to be another billion-dollar year.
All sides are gearing up for the arms race. A Kemp adviser, speaking anonymously to candidly share information, told The Daily Beast, “I don’t think anybody knows where the roof is.”
That’s partially because of a new bill Kemp signed this year, allowing individuals to contribute unlimited amounts of money toward campaigns. Kemp himself became the first candidate to take advantage of the law, having already banked $11 million by July—half the amount he raised during his entire 2018 campaign.
And while Republicans are arming up for the short-term primary, the winner will have to reckon with Abrams, a fundraising juggernaut who outraised Kemp by $5 million in their 2018 battle but came about 55,000 votes short in the election.
Since then, Abrams has built out a massive grassroots voter outreach network, called Fair Fight, whose PAC raised $90 million for the 2020 elections, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Peach State Republicans will also have to reckon with another wild card: former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost alongside Perdue in the 2020 runoffs. Loeffler has stated no plans of her own to run for office in 2022, but she is poised to wield significant influence in Georgia’s races. She has significant personal wealth, access to a vast fundraising network, and her own nonprofit voter outreach group designed as a rival to Fair Fight.
But Perdue, Loeffler’s former ally, might find himself the target of that spending. Loeffler is close with Kemp—he appointed her to the Senate in 2019—and her re-election bid saw tens of millions of dollars in 2020 support from a super PAC launched by Kemp associates. And when the super PAC shut down this year after Loeffler’s loss, the pro-Kemp Stop Stacey PAC was the only political group to catch a windfall.
In June, however, Loeffler contributed $250,000 to a super PAC aligned with Trump, who has committed to Perdue.
Even Kemp allies believe that Loeffler might avoid the bruising primary and then go all-in for the nominee; the Kemp adviser told The Daily Beast they expect Loeffler will “probably sit it out.”
Looming over the Kemp-Perdue bout is Georgia’s continued status as a nationally crucial political battleground. Once again, the Senate majority could be decided in the Peach State, with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) defending the seat he won from Loeffler.
Top Republicans worry that the Senate seat could wind up as collateral damage from a brutal governor’s primary.
“It’ll be a contentious primary,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the close Trump ally and former colleague of Perdue’s. “My hope is when it’s over, the party comes together, because if we don’t, we could wind up losing not only the governor’s race, but the Senate race.”
“He believes that he can unite the party better than Kemp,” Graham said of Perdue. “He may be right. Time will tell.”
