Georgia Republican David Perdue, who lost his Senate seat in a runoff election last month, announced on Tuesday that he will not be a candidate for the U.S Senate again next year, Newsweek reported.
"This is a personal decision, not a political one," Perdue said. "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's statement comes about a week after he filed paperwork to run against Sen. Raphael Warnock, one of the two newly elected Democrat senators from Georgia, writing on Twitter that had done so as "a necessary legal step" to keep his options open.
Georgia is one of the GOP’s major targets as the Republicans hope to win back the Senate majority in next year’s midterms, Politico reported.
Perdue’s decision not to run helps to somewhat lessen concerns of a potentially contentious Republican primary next year, according to The Hill.
But former GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who also lost her Senate seat in the last election, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that a rematch with Warnock is “certainly on the table,” and former Republican Rep. Doug Collins is also said to be considering a run for that seat.
This could set up another bitter primary next year, even though Republicans are wary to replicate a fight between Loeffler and Collins last year that allowed Warnock to go relatively unscathed in the general election.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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