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 Keeping the seat once held by veteran Democrat Sam Nunn in the
Republican column is seen as crucial to the party's efforts at
seizing majority control of the Senate from the Democrats. David
Perdue, a former chief executive of Reebok, Dollar General and
Pillowtex, led U.S. Representative Jack Kingston by nearly 8,000
votes, with 92 percent of the state's counties reporting, before
Kingston conceded his loss.
"The numbers are not trending in our direction and they're probably
not going to change," Kingston told supporters about four hours
after polls closed.
Perdue will now face Democrat Michelle Nunn, Sam Nunn's daughter, in
the November general election for the seat being vacated by retiring
Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss.
Nunn's father served 24 years in the Senate, including a stint as
chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee, until he retired
at the end of 1996.
His immediate successor, Democrat Max Cleland, was unseated by
Chambliss in 2002.
"We’re going to win this fall," Perdue told his backers in a victory
speech late Tuesday.
"FRESH PERSPECTIVE"
Perdue had criticized Kingston as a Washington insider who voted to
add trillions of dollars to the national debt and to raise his own
salary seven times.
Kingston sought to cast Perdue, who lives on Georgia's exclusive Sea
Island, as a wealthy elitist.
When Kingston questioned the propriety of Perdue's 2010 appointment
to the Georgia Ports Authority by his cousin, then-Governor Sonny
Perdue, his opponent fired back that Kingston had failed in 17 years
to obtain funding necessary to deepen the Port of Savannah.
Voters seemed split over whether a political veteran or newcomer
would best serve them.
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“Experience matters,” said Kingston supporter Taton Thompson, 24, of
Savannah. “When you go to Washington, you need to know what to do,
you need to know how to pass legislation.”
But Don Cole, 60, a self-employed businessman from Cordele, said he
wanted a senator who had not been influenced for years by lobbyists.
"Perdue comes in with a fresh perspective and he’s not tied down by
all that," Cole said.
Perdue and Kingston edged out more conservative Tea Party candidates
in the May 20 Republican primary, drawing nearly 31 percent and 26
percent of the vote respectively to advance to Tuesday's one-on-one
runoff.
Analysts said either man would have posed a strong challenge to
Nunn, the well-financed Democratic nominee and former chief
executive officer of former President George H.W. Bush's Points of
Light philanthropic organization.
(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by Steve Gorman, Colleen
Jenkins and Gareth Jones)
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