David Perdue accuses Stacey Abrams of ‘demeaning’ her race

David Perdue, the former Republican senator running for governor in Georgia, accused Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams of “demeaning her own race” on Monday.

Perdue, who trails incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp in the polls, was at a campaign stop in Dunwoody when he mentioned Abrams’ race while attacking the Democratic candidate.

He also said Abrams, who is Black, should “go back to where she came from,” the Washington Post reported.

“Did you all see what Stacey said this weekend?” Perdue asked his supporters from a stage. “She said that Georgia is the worst place in the country to live. Hey, she ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from. She doesn’t like it here.”

Abrams has called Georgia home for the majority of her life. She moved to Georgia while in high school after being born in Wisconsin and raised in Mississippi. She graduated from Spellman College in Atlanta and served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017.

Perdue was referring to comments Abrams made at a fundraising dinner Saturday. She called Georgia the “worst state in the country to live”.

“I am tired of hearing about being the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live​,” Abrams said.

She gave her state the stunning moniker due to its poor mental health resources, maternal mortality rate, rising incarceration levels and slumping wages.

“Let me contextualize,” she said, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post. “When you’re No. 48 for mental health, when we’re No. 1 for maternal mortality, when you have an incarceration rate that is on the rise and wages are on the decline, then you are not the No. 1 place to live.”

Perdue also referred back to comments Abrams made during her 2018 run.

“When she told Black farmers, ‘You don’t need to be on the farm,’ and she told Black workers in hospitality and all this, ‘You don’t need to be’ — she is demeaning her own race when it comes to that,” he said.

“I am really over this. She should never be considered for material for governor of any state, much less our state — where she hates to live.”

Abrams had vowed to create lots of different job opportunities for Georgia residents if elected.

“People shouldn’t have to go into agriculture or hospitality in Georgia to make a living,” she said in 2018, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Why not create renewable energy jobs?”

Perdue’s opponent, Kemp, also responded to Abrams’ comments about Georgia being the worst state.

“Stacey Abrams may think differently, but I believe Georgia is the best state to live, work, and raise a family,” the governor tweeted late Saturday​.​ 

Kemp, who defeated Abrams in a hotly contested gubernatorial race in ​2018, is expected to easily defeat Perdue in Tuesday’s primary and currently holds a consistent polling lead over Abrams.