dog whistle fail: Perdue's lack of subtlety lost him the 2022 primary

For this blog post, I will be examining how ex Senator David Perdue failed to employ dog whistles in his 2022 gubernatorial campaign. Throughout his press on the campaign trail, I would argue that Perdue made a point of targeting Trump supporters, and more specifically, tried his best to appeal to those members of the electorate who were interested in denying the results of the 2020 election. I will be making the argument that Perdue leaned too hard into far-right conspiracy in his primary campaign, and this is part of the reason he lost the nomination to current incumbent Brian Kemp.

A little background info:

David Perdue (R) served as a senator for the state of Georgia from 2015 til 2021, when he lost his seat in the most expensive senate race in US history. (Democrat Jon Ossoff beat him by a thin margin in a general election runoff) Ever the evolver, David Perdue announced he would be running against incumbent Brian Kemp in the gubernatorial republican primary in December of 2021. One of Perdue's main appeals among the Republican electorate was the fact that he was endorsed by former President Donald Trump: importantly, Trump and other 2020 election deniers blame Kemp as one of the main actors responsible for "rigging" the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.

Perdue Went Full Force Into Election Denial:

During one of the first statements of his primary bid for the Republican nomination for the 2022 GA governor's race, Perdue said, "First off, let me be very clear tonight: The election in 2020 was rigged and stolen."
As this is an idea that has been promoted by further-right political groups since the 2020 presidential race was called, this may not seem out of the ordinary as a political statement. But it must be noted: denying the integrity of the national election system, on the whole, is a very extreme statement for any candidate to make. It aligns them very strongly in opposition with the "political estabilishment" in general.

Throughout his campaign, Perdue made other more similar statements, including (but not limited to):
- “Second to that, we have to win the majority back and we have to get that Warnock seat back. It is not rightfully theirs and I want it back.”
-"Most people in Georgia know that something untoward happened in the November 2020 election. In fact, I'll just say it, my election, the presidential election, they were stolen."
- "A lot of people are upset about that because I believe it was stolen and the evidence is there that's going to back it up if we ever get it out. But to this date, we've never had one truly objective outside third party investigation of any of these facts."

Perdue was not subtle, he did not use dog whistles. He stated his positions very clearly: there is no entertaining the fact that he may not be an election denier. In essence, Perdue focused his campaign on rallying the "MAGA" voter base in Georgia. This included a lot of claims, varying from focusing on Trump's endorsement to the need to "save our kids" from CRT. But, ultimately, his campaign hinged on the idea that the 2020 election had somehow been rigged against both him and Donald Trump: it was because of Kemp, it was because of Dominion, it was because of Stacey Abrams. Perdue preached the need for a "united Republican party" to defeat Stacey Abrams in the general...but in reality, the basis of his campaign was attempting to undermine Kemp's bid for governor, especially by targeting his perceived role in "rigging" the 2020 election.

My Theory: David Perdue's Campaign Rhetoric was Too Alienating
Ultimately, I think Perdue's failure to use dog whistles, and his move to instead directly state that he was in favor of 2020 election rejection, alienated those members of his base who were less extreme. It is standard for candidates to attempt to appeal to the more extreme members of their support base during primaries, but Perdue's technique in this primary was a too tactless. Many Republicans still believe in the integrity of the American election system: flat out rejection of any integrity within American democracy likely alienated moderate members of the Republican electorate. There are other intervening variables in this race as well, of course, including incumbent advantage and the fact that turnout for midterm elections is generally low. But, in the end, Perdue failed to appeal to a majority of the Republican voter base, and I think that his strong rhetoric ended up being a liability for his campaign.