Donald Trump is opening the financial spigots of his political organization to help former U.S. Sen. David Perdue defeat Gov. Brian Kemp. But Perdue’s chances might depend on how much more money the former president is willing to spend.
Trump’s Save America PAC transferred $500,000 to a pro-Perdue super PAC, in what Politico described as the former president’s first major financial investment in a midterm race this cycle. The infusion financed an ad promoting falsehoods about election fraud in the 2020 election.
Perdue will need more help to keep up with his rival. Kemp’s campaign reserved $4.2 million in airtime through the May 24 primary and released a trio of new ads this week. The Republican Governor’s Association bought another $5 million in TV ad time to boost Kemp’s campaign.
Perdue, by contrast, had less than $1 million in cash on hand in his last financial disclosure and has yet to report whether he’s pumped his own money into his campaign. His campaign has also not yet launched a significant new TV ad blitz.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Time is running short. Kemp leads Perdue by double-digits in recent polls despite Trump’s help. The former president staged a late March rally for the candidate, cut a TV ad promoting his endorsement and held a fundraiser at his Florida estate to help replenish his coffers.
And Kemp plans to tour the state over the next month signing into law a range of measures aimed at energizing conservative voters, such as the proposal he approved this week that allows Georgians to carry concealed handguns without a permit.
His allies are confident he can clear the 50-percent mark and avoid a June runoff against Perdue, though they also acknowledge Trump can quickly pour more money into the race.
Trump has vowed to defeat Kemp, who refused to heed his demands to overturn his election defeat. He wanted Kemp to call a special legislative session to reverse his defeat, and pressed him to refuse to certify the election results, something he was required by law to do.
The former president’s vendetta against Kemp, however, has mushroomed. He’s endorsed several little-known down-ticket candidates to oppose the governor’s allies, and said he’d rather see Democrat Stacey Abrams win in November than Kemp.
Both campaigns are watching closely whether Trump dips deeper into his political organization’s account, which now boasts more than $110 million. A spokesman wouldn’t divulge details, saying “we won’t be telegraphing our efforts to the media.”
After a smaller-than-typical rally in Georgia, Trump has tried to temper expectations by predicting that Kemp will be “hard to beat.” He told a conservative radio show host that he might return to Georgia for another event but “it’s a shame, it’s a shame -- not easy to beat a sitting governor. Just remember that.”
Trump continues to hedge on Perdue. From this AM: "It’s always hard to beat a sitting governor. It’s hard. It’s very hard to beat, because they have a lot of money behind them. You know, everybody is giving them money. But we will see what happens.” #gapol https://t.co/WusfcSjfEM
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) April 5, 2022
The infusion went to Get Georgia Right, a pro-Perdue PAC that’s led by Gregg Phillips. A Trump loyalist, Phillips also helms True the Vote, a Texas-based organization that unsuccessfully challenged the eligibility of 360,000 Georgia voters and pushed state investigators to pursue unsubstantiated claims of ballot harvesting.
Kemp’s campaign downplayed the impact of the cash, referring to Perdue’s remarks this week that questioned whether a state law enforcement agency has been allowed to “deteriorate” in recent years.
“David Perdue is going to need a lot more than $500,000 to distract from his unhinged rant attacking the Georgia State Patrol,” said Kemp aide Cody Hall.
