Senator David Perdue, R-Ga., Standing for re-election, speaks during a campaign rally at Peachtree Dekalb Airport in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, November 2, 2020.
Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images
Georgia Republican David Perdue said Tuesday he would not make a new Senate bid in 2022, abruptly ending speculation it sparked just a week earlier.
Perdue said the decision was personal and he did not elaborate on it, causing him to back off on a February 16 statement that he was seriously considering starting a race. The seat is held by Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, who defeated Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in one of two runoff elections in Georgia on January 5.
“I’m confident that anyone who wins the Republican primary next year will beat the Democratic candidate in the general election for that seat, and I will do everything I can to make that happen,” said Perdue, headed by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff was defeated in the other Senate drain.
Perdue filed papers on February 15 to run. The former senator tweeted the next day that he and his wife Bonnie would be looking into their options over the next few weeks.
The victories of Ossoff and Warnock gave the Democrats effective control of the Senate in a very small space. The races were marred by unsubstantiated allegations by former President Donald Trump of election fraud in Georgia.
Allied to these claims in his statement on Tuesday, Perdue said he would help state lawmakers “correct the inequalities in our state laws and electoral rules so that in the future every legal voter is treated equally and illegal votes are ignored.”
Perdue’s potential challenge in 2022 should be against Warnock, who is serving out the Republican ex-Sen’s term. Johnny Isakson. The latter resigned in 2019 for medical reasons.
On Monday, Loeffler started a voter registration group called “Greater Georgia”. She has not ruled out running again for office.
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