ATLANTA — UPDATE: On Monday morning, David Perdue made a video announcement on Twitter. Here is what he said:
Former Sen. David Perdue will mount a primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp next year, presenting the governor with an experienced, connected challenger who has the blessing of former President Donald Trump.
11Alive's Doug Richards confirmed the former senator's plans.
The 71-year-old represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate for one term, from 2015 until his loss earlier this year in a runoff election to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
The Republican's expected announcement comes on the heels of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic standard-bearer in Georgia, announcing her campaign on Friday.
Perdue had been rumored to be considering a primary challenge to Gov. Kemp for some time.
In a statement, Kemp's campaign communications director Cody Hall referred to Perdue as "the man who lost Republicans the United States Senate" and said his "only reason for running is to soothe his own bruised ego."
"Governor Kemp has a proven track record of fighting the radical left to put hardworking Georgians first, while Perdue is best known for ducking debates, padding his stock portfolio during a pandemic, and losing winnable races," Hall said.
The governor has been a fixation of former President Trump's since Georgia's closely-contested presidential election last year, out of a belief that Kemp did not do enough to help him in his quest to overturn the state's result favoring President Joe Biden. And Perdue has long enjoyed the former president's favor.
Trump, who campaigned extensively on behalf of Perdue in the Senate campaign last year, implied at a rally in Perry, Ga. in September that he should run against Kemp.
Perdue had originally considered a run again for Senate against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock next year. In February he asserted in an open letter that "Georgia is not a blue state" and that Democrats "do not fairly represent most Georgians."
The former senator has firmly aligned himself with the Trump movement. Last month he called Georgia's Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan "Brandon" - a coded insult among the president's supporters - in a tweet that mentioned Abrams.
It said, using mock quotation marks, the state's "conservative" leadership "caved to @staceyabrams - gave her everything she wanted + more. Why didn't you fight for all of us then instead of fighting us now? You guys are too focused on fighting Trump, instead of stopping Biden & saving GA."
At the moment, Perdue would still have to contend with Vernon Jones, the former DeKalb County Democrat who shifted allegiances to the Republican Party last year as he emerged as one of Georgia's most visible and vocal Trump supporters.
Jones announced his run against Kemp in April, positioning himself then as the pro-Trump alternative for Republican voters.