ATLANTA — Former Georgia Sen. David Perdue announced on Tuesday that he will not run for U.S. Senate in 2022.
Perdue was defeated by Sen. Jon Ossoff in January runoff. Perdue had been considering a run against Sen. Raphael Warnock when the seat is up for election next year.
“This is a personal decision, not a political one. I am confident that whoever wins the Republican Primary next year will defeat the Democrat candidate in the General election for this seat, and I will do everything I can to make that happen,” Perdue wrote in a statement. “As we saw in my race in November, Georgia is not a blue state. The more Georgians vote, the better Republicans do. These two current liberal US Senators do not represent the values of the majority of Georgians.”
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Last month, Perdue had filed paperwork to run for the seat held by Warnock. A senior Perdue adviser said the filing was a necessary legal step but did not mean he was officially running.
Perdue was a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and arguably one of his biggest allies throughout Trump’s presidency. Perdue was defeated after just one term as senator.
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Voters elected Perdue to the Senate in the 2014 election. He ran for election after the retirement of Republican Saxby Chambliss. He’s first cousin to former Georgia governor and former U.S. agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue.
Before entering politics, Perdue served as the CEO of Dollar General and Reebok as well as a senior manager at companies, such as Haggar Clothing and Sara Lee
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