About
David Perdue (R-Ga.) served in the U.S. Senate from 2015–21, and in 2022, with Trump’s endorsement, he made an unsuccessful bid to run for governor of Georgia but lost the GOP primary in a landslide to incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
As a senator, Perdue was accused of corruption for his stock trading activity at the beginning of the pandemic. According to an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on January 24, 2020, he bought stock in a medical company that manufactures personal protective equipment. That same day, the Senate received a classified briefing on the spread of Covid-19 in China and Asia.
Prior to serving in Congress, Perdue was a management consultant and an executive with several large companies, including Sara Lee, Reebok and Dollar General.
January 6, 2021
- On Jan. 3, 2021, two days before the Senate runoff election in Georgia, Perdue announced that he would object to certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory if he remained in the Senate. “You know, when I first saw the magnitude of the irregularities back in December, early December, about our November race, I called for the resignation of our secretary of state. I repeatedly called for a special session of the General Assembly to investigate. None of that happened. And so I started calling out for—the only thing left for the president is for us to object.” On Jan. 5, he lost his Senate seat to Sen. John Ossoff (D-Ga.).
- On Jan. 6, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sent text messages to Perdue pressuring him to sway Georgia election officials to invalidate Biden’s win in the state. However, Perdue replied: “I don’t see it. I’ll call later this morning. We have to figure this out going forward. I am so sorry. I feel like I let you and POTUS down. Thank you for everything.”
- In January 2021, when Twitter removed Trump’s account due to his role in inciting the riot at the Capitol, Perdue lashed out at the company, comparing its move to the actions of some of the most repressive regimes in history. Speaking on the online talk show Diamond and Silk, he said, “When individual citizens lose the right of free voice then we turn into a Germany in 1933 or a Russia in 1919, a Cuba in 1959 or Venezuela today.”
The Big Lie
- After losing to Ossoff on Jan. 5, 2021, Perdue cast doubt on the validity of his own election results, stating that it was an “exceptionally close election that will require time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate and the voices of Georgians are heard. We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”
- In December 2021, Perdue joined a lawsuit challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The filing asserted that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold. In a statement explaining his position, Perdue said, “I want to use my position and legal standing to shine light on what I know were serious violations of Georgia law in the Fulton absentee ballot tabulation. We are asking a judge to consider the evidence after our forensic examination of the absentee ballots is completed and hold those persons responsible who engaged in this wrongful conduct.” The lawsuit was dismissed in May 2022.
- During a 2022 debate for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia, Perdue again claimed that the 2020 election had been “rigged and stolen.” His charges drew condemnation from fellow Republicans such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who called Perdue’s comments “absurd.”