It marked the primary number one debate between Perdue, whose maximum distinguished supporter is former President Donald Trump, and Kemp, who the previous President says betrayed him for refusing to lend a hand him overturn his defeat in 2020 and whom he has got down to dethrone.
Whilst there’s no proof of fashionable voter fraud in any state all the way through the 2020 election, Perdue returned to the topic — a central theme of his marketing campaign — a number of occasions during the hourlong debate and argued that Kemp didn’t do sufficient to problem the state’s election effects.
Perdue was once defeated via Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s Senate election, and Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock received the particular election for the state’s different Senate seat, giving Democrats a majority within the chamber. Their wins within the January 2021 runoffs, paired with President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump within the Peach State, made Georgia central to Republican efforts to problem the election.
Trump has counseled and vigorously supported Perdue in an try to get again at Kemp for refusing to lend a hand him overturn his defeat in 2020.
“There may be simplest one that’s crushed Stacey Abrams, and that’s the reason me,” Kemp mentioned, regarding his first marketing campaign for governor in 2018 when he narrowly defeated Abrams. However Perdue remained involved in relitigating Kemp’s dealing with of the 2020 election.
“The one reason why I am not in the US Senate is since you caved in and gave the elections to Stacey and to the liberal Democrats in 2020,” he mentioned.
Perdue accused Kemp of passing the blame onto others and mentioned that made him a “vulnerable” chief. Kemp instantly returned the assault.
“Vulnerable leaders blame everyone else for their very own losses as a substitute of blaming themselves,” he mentioned.
Chatting with CNN following the controversy, Perdue mentioned he uncovered a “vulnerable governor.” Kemp, in the meantime, declined to respond to CNN’s questions as he left the controversy web site at WSB-TV’s studio in midtown Atlanta.
