It’s rare for a Republican statewide candidate in Georgia to take aim at law enforcement. But that’s what former U.S. Sen. David Perdue did Tuesday as he searches for new ways to gain ground against Gov. Brian Kemp.
As Kemp prepared to sign a measure rolling back gun restrictions, Perdue held his own press conference to take credit for the passage of “permit-less carry” legislation and critique Kemp’s criminal justice record.
What wasn’t expected, however, was Perdue’s remarks singling out the Georgia State Patrol, whose officers are charged with protecting the state Capitol, safeguarding the state’s highways and assisting local law enforcement.
“We’ve got to get our State Patrol back to the elite level that it always was,” Perdue said. “Somehow it’s been let to deteriorate by a lack of leadership from the governor’s office in the last three years, in my opinion.”
Perdue might have been alluding to the recent cheating scandal that cost the agency $2 million and led to the resignation of its chief. His campaign later blamed Kemp for violent crime rates and pledged to double the size of a crime unit within the patrol.
Still, Republicans like Perdue who embrace law-and-order campaign messaging usually steer clear of jabbing at law enforcement agencies.
Kemp’s aides cast Perdue’s remarks as another “bizarre” attempt to revive his insurgent campaign, which is lagging in recent polls ahead of the May 24 primary despite Donald Trump’s support.
Perdue earlier labeled Kemp’s election-year pay hikes for teachers “disgusting” and egged on a “lock him up” chant targeting the governor. He’s also ripped the $5 billion Rivian electric vehicle plant, the crown jewel of Kemp’s economic development recruitment efforts.
Sensing a new way to illustrate the GOP divide between the two rivals, Kemp’s campaign released a statement signed by roughly two dozen sheriffs who said they were “disappointed in former Senator Perdue’s disparaging comments about our partners in the Georgia State Patrol.”
As for Kemp, he would normally seek to keep the attention on the gun measure he signed into law. But minutes after inking the measure outside a Douglasville gun store, Kemp ripped into Perdue over his comments.
The unit’s officers, he said, prevented Atlanta from “being burned down” during the mass protests for social justice in 2020 while Perdue “was at home in his bed.”
“I’m used to being attacked, especially by people that don’t have their own record to talk about,” Kemp said. “But I’m not gonna allow people to attack the Georgia State Patrol. They are elite men and women that have been serving our state admirably for a long time.”
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