ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp pushed back Thursday against a statement attributed to his GOP challenger, former-Sen. David Perdue, in which Perdue said he would not have certified the November 2020 election had he been governor at the time.
“He might want to read the law,” Kemp said. “He didn’t want to certify the election? Then he needs to be running for secretary of state, not governor.”
Perdue announced Monday he would challenge Kemp for the GOP nomination for governor, setting up what could be a bruising primary.
Former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones also is a Republican candidate.
The nominee would go on to face the presumptive Democratic nominee, Stacey Abrams, in the general election.
Not long after Perdue jumped in the race, former President Donald Trump endorsed Perdue while at the same time criticizing Kemp and repeating his unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud in Georgia during the presidential election.
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In a statement made to Axios, Perdue said he would not have certified the November 2020 vote.
“Not with the information that was available at the time,” he told Axios. “And not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this, and I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for.”
The Georgia Secretary of State investigated the election results and, after more than one recount, concluded, again, that Trump lost to then-candidate Joe Biden in Georgia.
Kemp insisted certifying that election was his constitutional duty.
“I took an oath to follow the law and the constitution of this state,” he said. “If (Perdue) wants to run for governor by not doing that and telling people that in advance, you know, he can certainly do that.”
Channel 2 Action News asked for an interview with Perdue this week, but was told his staff was working to set up interviews some time next week.
Kemp, speaking for the first time since Perdue’s announcement, said he plans to run on his record of handling the pandemic and the spike in violent crime in Atlanta.
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