The remaining two Republicans in the U.S. Senate race in Georgia didn’t waste any time before starting the mudslinging Wednesday, attacking each other on national TV just hours after they survived a crowded field in Tuesday’s primary vote to make it into a July 22 runoff.
David Perdue, the former CEO of Dollar General who finished first in the primary election, slammed his runoff opponent for being a “career politician” who watched the federal debt balloon “on his watch.”
Rep. Jack Kingston, who finished a close second in the primary, accused Mr. Perdue of being a “flip-flopper” on conservative issues.
The two rivals, who are vying for the GOP nomination to replace retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, appeared separately on “Fox & Friends.”
Mr. Kingston threw the first jab, saying that Mr. Perdue “never even voted in a Republican primary until now.”
“He’s flip-flopped all over the place on many of the key issues that conservative voters care about,” Mr. Kingston said, citing issues such as Common Core school curriculum, taxes and immigration. “You name it, he’s a moderate flip-flopper and I think as Republican primary voters look more and more at his record, the more the comfortable they are with mine as a consistent conservative.”
Mr. Perdue later responded to the flip-flop charge.
“Well, that’s what we’ve become accustomed to from our career politicians,” he said. “You know, nothing that the congressman just said is really true. If you look at my voting record, it speaks for itself.
“But the real issue in this race that Georgians want to talk about — and he doesn’t really want to do that — is his record of spending in the U.S. House of Representatives. We’ve gone from $4 trillion to $17 trillion [of federal debt] on his watch and the people of Georgia didn’t miss that,” Mr. Perdue said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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