ATL Standard

Running in the Republican primary to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp, former Sen. David Perdue now has the “complete and total endorsement” of former President Donald Trump. 

According to a report from Fox 5 Atlanta, Perdue rolled out a new campaign ad that includes the former president offering his “complete and total endorsement” of Perdue in his effort to unseat the incumbent Kemp. The candidate kicked off his campaign with a tour that started in Alpharetta earlier this month and was expected to include 11 stops, according to the station, and the launch came after Perdue had isolated for several days after testing positive for COVID-19. 

"I'm proud to have President Trump’s complete and total endorsement," Perdue said in a tweet cited by the station. “Georgians are tired of do-nothing, weak-kneed politicians. As governor, I’ll be a fighter, who never caves to the woke left.”

In the advertisement, the Fox 5 report noted that Perdue is casting himself as an “America first conservative outsider” and “someone conservatives can count on to secure elections,” and stop potential Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams. Fox 5 also reported that Perdue’s campaign is spending in the “low six figures” to get the ad on stations statewide as well as on digital platforms. 

Fox 5 reported that in the advertisement, the former president makes critical comments about Kemp, claiming Democrats “walked all over” the governor, who has been in Trump’s crosshairs since the 2020 election when the governor dismissed Trump’s unproven allegations of voter fraud in the state. 

The battle between Kemp and Perdue has been heated, and Fox 5 noted in its report that the governor recently filed an ethics complaint against his challenger, who complained publicly about a state law that allows the incumbent to generate campaign money without a limit. The two Georgia political heavyweights will be joined in the GOP primary by Vernon Jones and Kandis Taylor, according to Fox 5.