Abrams vs. Kemp vs. Perdue
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
When Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced his intent to run for reelection, he knew he was facing down a rematch with voting rights activist and former state lawmaker Stacey Abrams. What he likely didn’t expect was a challenge from the right in the form of David Perdue, a local businessman, former senator, and good friend who was encouraged to run against him by Donald Trump. Now, the question is whether Trumpism can be a winning argument in Georgia—or whether Democrats might be able to exploit Republicans’ division to score a win in the deeply purple state.
Guest: Greg Bluestein, reporter covering state politics for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Almost as soon as I got Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Greg Bluestine on the phone, we got interrupted. |
| 0:12.1 | And let me pause really quick right here. My doorbell just rang. |
| 0:14.2 | I didn't hear it, but if you need to go get that Amazon Prime. |
| 0:20.5 | In pandemic times, interruptions like this are pretty common. |
| 0:24.5 | Just not this kind. |
| 0:26.2 | That's cool. |
| 0:27.2 | Someone is delivering us a cake. |
| 0:29.7 | Greg's a political reporter. |
| 0:31.6 | This is the weird thing about, like, covering this stuff. |
| 0:34.8 | I'm not kidding. |
| 0:35.8 | Like, readers being a local reporter, readers will send like champagne bottles. |
| 0:44.5 | I see this cake as an indicator of just how crazy Georgia politics has gotten over the last year. |
| 0:52.2 | You do not send your local reporter baked goods if you feel like |
| 0:56.2 | they're having an easy time of it. What does it say on it? Is it like great reporting Greg? Or is it |
| 1:02.3 | like, this says thanks for your hard work reporting and thanks for all you do. And it's people I don't |
| 1:08.7 | know. Greg and reporters like him, they have not caught a break since a runoff election sent two Democratic senators to Washington in January, tipping the balance of power ever so slightly in the Dem's favor. |
| 1:23.5 | It's funny because our readers and my friends and family and community, you know, at first it was kind of neat that we were the center of the political universe and it was new for us because, you know, folks in Iowa and South Carolina and the like, they're used to that sort of scrutiny and we're not. I mean, we've been an afterthought in so many of these battles for years. |
| 1:47.0 | And now people are already like, oh, gosh, 2022 is going to be a nightmare. |
| 1:52.4 | 2022 is set to be a nightmare because the outcome of that last election spun Georgia's GOP into a very public identity crisis over election security, |
| 2:05.6 | over whether Trump was actually defeated or not. And all those questions, they're about to be |
| 2:11.5 | dredged up again as Georgia's Republican governor faces re-election. As I was getting ready for this interview, |
| 2:19.5 | I just had to wonder if you ever feel as a political reporter in Georgia that you're stuck in a |
... |
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