Where’s Perdue? Six Years Without A Public Town Hall

ATLANTA — This New Year’s Eve officially marks the end of the sixth full year that Senator David Perdue has gone without hosting a single public town hall for Georgians, refusing to face accountability from his constituents. Perdue has hid from everyday Georgia voters for the past six years while selling access to meetings on his private island for a $7,500 contribution and facing heavy scrutiny for financial abuses and shady stock trades he has made in industries he oversees as a senator.

“Not only has Perdue refused to hold a single town hall in six years, he’s ducked and dodged reporters at every turn amid corrupt stock trading scandals and repeated financial abuses,” said Braxton Brewington, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “It’s not just that Perdue hides, it’s that he only allows access to the wealthy and corporations who can afford to write his campaign big checks. Georgians deserve a senator who will show up for all of them, not just those who can afford to buy access.”

Here’s 13 times just this year that Perdue was called out for ducking accountability and avoiding Georgians:

1. A CBS46 report revealed Perdue to be “among the Senate’s most absent members,” missing several key hearings and votes, sometimes “in order to attend fundraisers,” instead of fighting for Georgia families and small businesses.

2. Perdue infamously ducked the Atlanta Press Club’s December debate with Jon Ossoff and was instead “represented by an empty podium,” a stark reminder of Perdue’s failure of leadership in getting the pandemic under control and getting Georgia on the path to recovery.

3. CNN highlighted how at campaign events where “only a select group is invited,” Perdue repeatedly ducked and dodged attempts by a CNN reporter to ask him why he refused to debate his opponent. CNN noted that “This isn’t just CNN. Local TV stations, Atlanta’s largest paper says the Senator has ducked reporters across Georgia.”

4. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that “catching up” with Perdue is “no small feat,” and interviews with Perdue are “even harder to come by than an invite to a campaign event.” The AJC added “even reliable Republican voters say they’re missing events because they didn’t know Perdue was in town” going so far to avoid questions from reporters that he once “left U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler to face the cameras alone.”

5. For one week after Trump “undercut” Perdue on direct payments, Perdue refused to answer whether he would support $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Perdue “declined repeated requests” for comment on his stance and 11Alive reached out to Perdue’s campaign but hadn’t “heard back yet” for nearly a week.

6. An 11Alive report exposed Perdue’s “stealth campaign,” noting Georgians “have not heard a lot from Senator Perdue” and investigated “why the sounds of silence may be by design.” One constituent noted she doesn’t know “anyone who has had face-to-face time with Sen. Perdue,” after trying to get a hold of him for about “three-and-a-half years.”

7. A devastating CBS46 report revealed Perdue’s history of steering clear of both the media and his constituents, highlighting that Perdue has not hosted a single public town hall in his nearly six years in the Senate and that apparently only “donors” are getting access to the Senator.

8. Georgians have seen so little of Perdue that 11Alive called one of his campaign stops “more unusual than it sounds,” noting that while other U.S. Senate candidates appear “pretty routinely,” Perdue has been largely “staying below the radar.” The report added that Perdue’s incredibly short campaign stop “kept [Perdue] from talking with supporters or reporters…or staying longer than nine minutes.”

9. Albany’s WALB reported having several interviews canceled by Perdue. WALB said the TV station scheduled “multiple interviews with Sen. David Perdue,” but that “each time, his team canceled.”

10. The Marietta Daily Journal reported getting “blanked” by Perdue’s office when local journalists were barred from entering an event with Perdue. Even after receiving invites from Perdue’s office, the two journalists were “ushered away” after attempting to enter the room, being told by staff there was no media allowed at the event.

11. After Perdue’s campaign refused to disclose information about his public schedule, CNN caught up with Perdue at a campaign stop and asked him why he wouldn’t disclose his campaign events, leaving Perdue stunned before deflecting by saying “that’s a campaign question.”

12. Perdue took heat for refusing to take questions from Georgia’s local media three weeks after being forced into a January runoff. After ducking reporters at a campaign event, 11Alive’s Doug Richards said he “would have asked Senator Perdue exactly how the Secretary of State mismanaged the Georgia election,” a claim Perdue has made without evidence, but wasn’t able to since Perdue “skipped back onto his campaign bus without answering questions afterward.”

13. Perdue skipped his own campaign rally in a clear effort to avoid facing voters after being forced into a January runoff. Perdue refused to speak to Georgians despite several attempts from local media to get in contact with him.

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