Sen. David Perdue shares opinions on current voting poll during Columbus campaign stop

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Today is the last day for early voting in Georgia, and the push is on for many candidates ahead of the Tuesday primary.

News Leader 9 was with Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue this morning in Columbus.

NBC News put out a report overnight saying the Perdue campaign was nearly dead and that President Trump was distancing himself from the candidate.

Senator David Perdue touring the state flew into the Columbus Airport Friday morning to speak with about a dozen or so supporters, and the local media was asked about polling.

We asked him specifically about polling that shows him trailing the governor significantly. He believes he’s the best candidate to represent the Republican side of the ballot in November, and Perdue says he’s not buying the polling numbers.

Columbus is the first of six stops for the senator as he travels the state campaigning to be the Republican nominee for Georgia’s race for governor.

“I’m running against a guy who’s been in elected office for 20 years. Governor for 4. Secretary of State for 9. He hasn’t enforced any election laws. He’s divided the party. We don’t think he can win in November, and that’s why we’re offering ourselves up as an alternative,” said Perdue.

Polling numbers recently released show a major gap between Perdue and Governor Brian Kemp, but Perdue says you shouldn’t buy what the polls are selling.

“This is what happens in politics when fake news wants to talk about things that aren’t true. Look at what the fake news has said about election fraud in Georgia. Nobody has disproven election fraud in this state. A lot of people know the truth in this state. That’s what this is about. I talked to President Trump this week. He is still all in on this race. I can assure you of that.”

Perdue says plenty of Republican voters skipped out on voting in 2018, and they won’t be included in any polling this time around, and he says polls have been flat out wrong in the past.

“Those polls have no credibility. The same thing happened in 2014 when they had me down and I won by 8. They had me down in 20 and in the general we won by 2. 90,000 votes. That’s half a million votes more than Kemp got in 2018 when he had the Trump endorsement. It’s one of the reasons why I’m running right now.”

I specifically asked Senator Perdue what happens Wednesday moving forward in this race if, say Brian Kemp does secure the Republican side of the ticket. Would the two candidates shake it out and support each other down the stretch?

He says he’s all in to defeat Stacy Abrams in November. He thinks he’s the best candidate to do it, but he’s all in to make it happen no matter who’s on the ticket.

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