Perdue says he won’t run for Georgia Senate a week after saying he was considering it

Former Georgia Sen. David Perdue said Tuesday that he won’t run again in 2022, abruptly ending speculation about a potential bid that he had stoked just one week prior.

The Republican businessman called the decision a personal one, and did not elaborate on what caused him to backtrack on a statement issued last Tuesday in which he said he was seriously considering mounting a challenge.

“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,” said Perdue, who was defeated in a runoff by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff last month.

Perdue filed paperwork to run on Feb. 15. The next day, he wrote on Twitter that he and his wife, Bonnie Perdue, would spend the “next few weeks” exploring their options.

Ossoff and fellow Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victories in last month’s races delivered Democrats 50 seats in the Senate and effective control of the upper body of Congress. The races were clouded by former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of voting fraud in Georgia and other states.

In his statement on Tuesday, Perdue alluded to those claims. He said that he would “do everything I can to be helpful” in efforts by state lawmakers to “correct the inequities in our state laws and election rules so that, in the future, every legal voter will be treated equally and illegal votes will not be included.”

Perdue’s potential challenge in 2022 was expected to be against Warnock, who beat Republican Kelly Loeffler last month. Warnock is serving out the term of ex-Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, who resigned in 2019 citing medical challenges.

Loeffler on Monday launched a voter registration group called “Greater Georgia.” She has not ruled out running for office again.