Former Sen. David Perdue attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on the eve of the state’s primary election in racist remarks accusing the voting rights advocate of “demeaning her own race.”
Perdue, who lost to current Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in the state’s GOP primary race, made the comments during a right-wing radio show before his final campaign event in Dunwoody, Georgia on Monday.
During the interview, Perdue attacked the Fair Fight founder for saying last week that Georgia
was the worst state in the U.S. to live citing poor maternal mortality rankings, incarceration rates and education. Perdue made Abrams seem like an outsider in the state despite the fact she’s lived in the Peach State since high school.“She said that ‘Georgia is the worst place in the country to live.’ Hey, she ain’t from here,” Perdue said. “Let her go back where she came from. She doesn’t like it here. The only thing she wants is to be president of the United States. She doesn’t care about the people in Georgia.”
He also cited a statement Abrams made in 2018 when she said she wanted to create a lot of different jobs in Georgia because residents shouldn’t have to go into agriculture or hospitality to earn a living in the state.
“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,” Perdue added.
According to 11 Alive, Abrams declined to respond to Perdue’s comments saying Republicans have attacked her for the last six months, but have done “nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia” or “to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia.”
“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 when asked to respond to Perdue’s statements. “When you’re No. 48 for mental health, when you’re No. 1 for maternal mortality, when you have an incarceration rate that’s on the rise and wages that are on the decline, then you are not the No. 1 place to live.”Perdue’s comments led to widespread backlash from many Black civil rights advocates including CNN’s Van Jones who called his comments “disgusting” and adding “he made it about race.”