‘In unity there is strength,’ Sen. Perdue urges Ga. GOP to support President Trump

Georgia Republicans gathered under one roof Saturday, but camps are already dividing ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial and congressional races.

Campaign signs lined the entrances to the Georgia National Fairground and Agricenter for the 2017 Fish Fry in the Georgia Grown building.

Sen. David Perdue, the keynote speaker of the 8th Congressional District gathering, urged the GOP to support President Trump’s agenda.

“In unity there is strength,” Perdue said from the podium. “The Republican party is not united behind our president and we can change that.”

Pointing out that Donald Trump is “nobody’s choir boy,” Georgia’s junior senator likened the president to Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt as “men of destiny at a point of crisis in their countries.”

The senator’s cousin, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who fathered the annual fish fry while he was governor, joined the gathering after taking a “cabinet call” with the president about Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Texas and the nation.

“It was pretty solemn. There’s a lot of water,” Sonny Perdue told The Telegraph in a private interview. “Kind of reminds me of Alberto in 1994. We know how devastating that can be.”

The tropical system stalled over Middle Georgia in July of 1994 when Sonny Perdue was a state senator.

He said the president is committed to getting help to the people of Texas first and worrying about paperwork later.

From the stage, the second to last of the president’s cabinet to be confirmed rallied his party faithful to keep fighting.

“The battle is not over with the other side getting more aggressive in pushing their socialist agenda,” said Sonny Perdue, who was happy to return to see so many friends in his home county of Houston.

“It’s a warm feeling for me,” Sonny Perdue told The Telegraph.

Across the room, gubernatorial hopefuls were shaking hands and posing for pictures.

Kari Kitchens, of Jones County, said the fish fry gives folks a chance to meet the candidates.

“Most likely somebody you’re eating fried fish with is going to be the next governor,” said Kitchens, whose husband Sam serves on the Jones County Board of Commissioners and was more interested in the side conversations than the stump speeches.

“Just to get at a grass roots level to see our party’s on the same page, pushing for the same goals and developing strategies to get there,” said Kitchens.

Congressman Austin Scott was traveling overseas visiting the troops, said his wife, Vivien, who spoke in his place.

“Just as many of you, Austin remains frustrated with the state of things in D.C. and how politics and the media can sometimes hurt good policy,” Scott said.

Adel’s Vance Dean, who sells commercial real estate, made news in telling the crowd he will soon be announcing his primary challenge against Scott.

“I’m just tired of excuses, people telling us one thing and doing another,” Dean said.

Gubernatorial candidates, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, State Sen. Hunter Hill and former teacher Marc Alan Urbach shared a bit of their platforms after lunch.

Political and racial divisions have escalated with the current debate over Confederate monuments and proposals such as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams advocating the removal of the Stone Mountain carvings of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.

Kemp said people like Abrams, who just resigned her Georgia House seat to focus on her campaign, should not overreact.

“We just need to sit down and talk,” Kemp told The Telegraph. “That’s exactly what we need, to have productive dialogue and let cooler heads prevail.”

Cagle said he was proud to have been part of the legislative process that passed a bill protecting Georgia Civil War tributes.

“Taking away a monument or a statue doesn’t solve anything,” he said.

State Senator Hill, who favors abolishing the state income tax, said: “There is so much more we can do to move the conservative agenda forward.”

Urbach told The Telegraph he’s having trouble getting Atlanta media to take his bid seriously, but wants to create a new Georgia Triangle linking Columbus, Macon, Augusta to Atlanta with a high speed bullet train.

Sen. Larry Walker, III, of Perry, said the GOP gathering is a boost to his local community.

“We get to meet the candidates in person and I think that’s helpful.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2017 at 4:48 PM with the headline "‘In unity there is strength,’ Sen. Perdue urges Ga. GOP to support President Trump."