Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed former U.S. Senator David A. Perdue Jr. about his challenge to Gov. Brian P. Kemp in the May 24 GOP primary.

Perdue said with the backing of President Donald J. Trump, he is working to unite the Georgia Republican Party after Kemp triggered a schism over his refusal to address irregularities in the 2020 election.

The former senator said in addition to his mishandling of the 2020 election, Kemp has allowed leftwing activist Stacey Abrams and the Democrats to manipulate voting rules to their advantage. “The governor has sold us out.”

TRANSCRIPT:

McCabe: Georgia Conservatives, frustrated with Governor Brian Kemp’s failure to acknowledge problems in the 2020 election, welcomed the news that former Senator David Perdue had entered the primary race against him. Perdue told The Star News Network why he’s in the race.

Perdue: One of the reasons I’m running is because people in Georgia are split, Republicans are split, and having Donald Trump’s endorsement is huge in this primary…

(Trump clip plays)

David Perdue is an outstanding man. He’s tough, he’s smart. He has my complete and total endorsement. Vote for David Perdue.

Perdue: To make sure that I can get to the general and unite our party. To stand up against this onslaught. It’s really the woke left that’s really mounting a tremendous attack on the state of Georgia.

It’s headed by Stacey Abrams, but believe me, this is all the California billionaires who are going to pile money in here to make sure that they get their Democratic governor because they believe that will determine the next President of the United States in ’24.

McCabe: Perdue said Kemp did nothing to resolve what Kemp himself called significant errors in the 2020 election.

Perdue: This Governor Brian Kemp, has divided our party over the elections and other things, but primarily the elections. He sold us out on the consent decree that changed the voting rules in Georgia. That created the opportunity for Stacey Abrams to take over our elections.

He then denied me and others special sessions to get at what happened in November, where I even asked for the resignation of the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, because he was no help in November, December and even looking at what had happened,

McCabe: The former Senator said his campaign is forcing Kemp to play the conservative again.

Perdue: It’s a MeToo campaign on their side. After running on that three years ago, I had to announce that I supported constitutional caring in December, and then a month later, he comes out, oh, yeah, I’m for that, too.

Parental bill of rights, I did the same thing in December. He ran on this earlier, talking about school safety and so forth, did nothing about it in three years. Look, this is a governor that has sold us out.

McCabe: Kemp and Perdue are now neck and neck in the polls going into the May 24th primary, but Purdue said he needs that’s going to change, especially when President Donald J. Trump comes to the state for a rally in April. Reporting for The Star News Network, Neil W. McCabe, Atlanta.