Trump-backed David Perdue tells Georgia rival Stacey Abrams to ‘go back to where you came from’
Donald Trump-backed Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue accused political rival Stacey Abrams of “demeaning her own race” and wants the 48-year-old Democrat to “go back where she came from” if she has issues with the state she’s called home since the 1980s.
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams talks to the media during Georgia's primary election on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Atlanta. (Brynn Anderson/)
Perdue, who is trailing incumbent Brian Kemp by double-digits in most polls leading up to Tuesday’s GOP primary, notched up the divisive rhetoric on Monday night in a last ditch effort to appeal to far-right voters. His comments were in response to Abrams’ hopes to change Georgia’s poor record on issues including gun violence, infant mortality, minimum wage and maternal mortality, where it ranks worst in the nation. She has both spoken and tweeted about the Peach State’s performance in those areas.
“Did you all see what Stacey said this weekend?” the Washington Post reports Perdue told supporters in Dunwoody, Ga. “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 (if) she doesn’t like it here.”
ABC News reports that Abrams declined to address Perdue’s comments during at a press conference in Atlanta Tuesday. She did, however, accuse state Republicans of attacking her personally rather than addressing the problems facing Georgia.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp leads Trump-backed rival David Perdue as GOP primary fight looms
Perdue also brought up 2018 comments made by Abrams, who said Black workers should have employments options other than working on farms or struggling to make ends meet in the hospitality industry.
“She is demeaning her own race when it comes to that,” he said.
Abrams was born in Madison, Wisc., and moved with her family to Gulfport, Miss., as a child. Her family then moved to Georgia, where she reportedly graduated as her high school’s valedictorian before attending Spelman College in Atlanta and graduating magna cum laude. She served in Georgia’s House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017.
Perdue’s comments about Abrams’ history drew comparisons to remarks made by former president Donald Trump that four minority women in Congress should go back to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
All but one of those women were from the U.S. and the fourth immigrated with her family as child.
Abrams, who ran unopposed as a Democrat, is likely to face incumbent and Republican frontrunner Gov. Brian Kemp in a rematch in the November election. The pair initially squared off in a bitterly contested 2018 gubernatorial race.
