Promising to keep Democrats out of state and national leadership and fight for election integrity, candidate for Georgia governor David Perdue spoke to voters in Ringgold on Thursday.
About 40 people attended Perdue's speech at Farm to Fork, and a few more followed him to a brief visit to the office of VOTER GA - also known as Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia, an organization that bills itself as nonpartisan and dedicated to voter integrity - a few minutes away in Ringgold.
Perdue said he thinks he's the only candidate who can beat Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and told the crowd why he's running - referring to a list of national issues he blamed on Democratic leadership.
"If you look at the 13 dead soldiers [in Afghanistan], $5 a gallon gasoline, runaway inflation, you see it's 12% now on an annual basis, we're already in double-digit inflation the brink of war, what's going on in Ukraine, 2 million illegal immigrants, and all that started right here in Georgia," Perdue said.
Perdue said Gov. Brian Kemp didn't do enough to investigate the 2020 election that gave the nation two Democratic Georgia senators and Joe Biden the presidency, Perdue said. He also blamed Kemp for allowing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to donate tens of millions of dollars primarily to Democratic counties in Georgia.
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Perdue promised to deport more people living in the country illegally, reduce crime in Georgia and increase the number of Georgia state troopers.
He also blamed Kemp for not allowing Buckhead to become its own city and allow incumbents to sidestep campaign finance laws.
Before his speech, Perdue played an advertisement featuring former President Donald Trump calling Perdue "tough and smart." The advertisement was filmed at Trump's Club Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Perdue said. A script was given to Trump, but Perdue said Trump didn't use it, preferring to speak off the cuff. "You never know what you're going to get with that guy," he said, bringing a laugh from the crowd.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported Thursday that Trump's political action committee had given $500,000 to a group running attack ads against Kemp.
Perdue said he has already had a successful career in the corporate world but is running for governor to protect his grandchildren's future and preserve Republican values for Georgia.
"Here's what we are: economic opportunity for everybody, fiscal responsibility, economic freedom, individual freedom and limited government. That's what we are," Perdue said. "What they are [Democrats], they believe state control is the answer to everything. Whether it's health care or education, they believe the state should be in charge of your children's education."
Democrats want to separate children from the authority of their parents, Perdue said, adding he was speaking as the husband of a former teacher and son of two teachers. Answering a question from the crowd after his speech, Perdue said he believes "dollars should follow the child" and parents should be able to choose what school their child attends.
Conducted March 30-31, the most recent polling saw Kemp with a 49% to 33% lead over the former senator. If neither candidate captures more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be conducted. Reaching 825 Republican likely voters, Cygnal conducted the poll for the pro-Kemp group Hardworking Georgians.
READ MORE: Northwest Georgia election results remain largely unchanged after statewide audit
Perdue said he believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and at the VOTER GA office he spoke more about election integrity. He said he is part of a lawsuit to have ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, unsealed so that they can be examined.
Perdue said two just-released documentaries, "Rigged" and "2,000 Mules," lay out what he believes is evidence of impropriety during the 2020 election. Republicans found that in Virginia, they can still win races if they have enough volunteers to monitor the election process, he said, encouraging those at Farm to Fork to volunteer and rally their friends and neighbors to do the same.
Perdue's words echoed those of Trump, who has repeatedly and vociferously said the 2020 election was stolen from him despite those claims being rejected by multiple courts, state governments and members of his own former administration.
Voter Sherre Bales and her tablemate, Mary Coles, said in unison that their key issues in the governor's race were jobs, getting critical race theory out of schools and election integrity. Also at the table was Jim Coles, a candidate for District 2 state representative. All three expressed support for Perdue.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.