AJC Poll: Kemp building strong lead over Perdue for GOP nomination in governor’s race

ATLANTA — A new primary election poll released by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Gov. Brian Kemp is building a strong lead over former U.S. Sen. David Perdue to the earn Republican nomination for Georgia governor.

Kemp led Perdue 53%-27% in the poll, which would put Kemp above the majority-vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Other challengers polled in single-digits: Kandiss Taylor at 4%, Catherine Davis at 1% and Tom Williams at 0%. Another 15% of likely Republican voters were undecided, according to the poll.

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The poll was conducted for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution by University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. The poll involved 886 likely Republican primary voters between April 10-22. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.

The newspaper reports that Kemp dominated Perdue in almost every category with likely GOP voters in the latest poll. While Perdue fared best with lower-income voters, he still trailed Kemp significantly.

Perdue only outpolled Kemp 55% to 30% among likely voters who said an endorsement from former President Donald Trump would make them more likely to vote for that candidate.

Poll participants were asked if they had a favorable opinion of Kemp and a favorable opinion of Perdue. Kemp received a favorable opinion from 71% of respondents, while 21% gave him an unfavorable opinion.

By contrast, 57% of respondents had a favorable view of Perdue with 30% giving an unfavorable opinion of him.

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The governor’s race is not the only poll results released by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. The poll also shows a potential landslide for Senate candidate Herschel Walker in the primary.

Walker led Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black 66-7%. About 23% of likely voters were undecided.

According to the poll, 77% of likely voters had a favorable opinion of the former UGA football star.

Throughout the primary season, Walker has ignored his opponents and focused on a November matchup against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.

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The poll also focused on the biggest issues to likely voters in the Republican primary on a scale of extremely important to not at all important.

• Election security: 52% extremely important, 35% very important, 9% somewhat important, 3% not at all important
• Immigration and border security: 52% extremely important, 36% very important, 8% somewhat important, 3% not at all important
• Crime and public safety: 48% extremely important, 45% very important, 6% somewhat important, 1% not at all important
• Second Amendment rights: 48% extremely important, 40% very important, 8% somewhat important, 2% not at all important
• Abortion, school curriculum and transgender issues: 37% extremely important, 36% very important, 17% somewhat important, 9% not at all important

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll also asked how confident likely voters are that this year’s elections will be conducted fairly and accurately. The majority polled somewhat confident at 42% with 26% saying not so confident, 18% very confident and 13% not so confident at all.

Election security dominated the WSB-TV Republican gubernatorial debate between the two leading candidates Sunday night.

Perdue began the debate by repeating his claim of fraud in the 2020 election.

“First off folks, let me be very clear tonight. The election of 2020 was rigged and stolen,” he said.

Those statements kicked off a long back-and-forth between the candidates with Perdue questioning whether Kemp could have called a special session to further investigate the election.

“Well, first of all, the only one lying here is you, and that is a fact,” Kemp said.

“Did you call a special session? Did you stop the consent decree? No, you didn’t. Of course, you didn’t, and that’s why you failed,” Perdue replied.

“You were on the ballot after the consent decree was signed. You never said a word about it until you lost the election,” Kemp retorted.

“Of course I did,” Perdue said.

WSB-TV Republican Gubernatorial Debate Part 1

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