[10][11] Perdue sought the Republican nomination in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election against incumbent Brian Kemp, and was endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

[17] Perdue was raised in Warner Robins, Georgia, and graduated from Northside High School in 1968,[18][19] where he was an excellent student, a varsity athlete, and class president.

[20] He went to college for one year at the United States Air Force Academy starting in June 1968, after receiving an appointment from Congressman Jack Brinkley of Georgia, but dropped out after earning low grades.

Perdue negotiated a contract with the National Football League that a former Reebok executive called "revolutionary" for repositioning the company's shoe brand.

[43] In April 2011, he started Perdue Partners, an Atlanta-based global trading firm,[15] with his cousin, whose term had ended in January 2011, and two former state officials.

[47][48] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has described Perdue as having a "mixed" business record, but says that he was "known on Wall Street as a turnaround specialist who helps revive brands and reap rewards for investors.

Critics noted that he had contributed to a total of thousands of jobs lost following the final closure of Pillowtex, while Perdue left the company after nine months with a nearly $2 million buyout.

With a net worth of $15.8 million, as calculated by Roll Call based on financial disclosures, Perdue was one of the wealthiest members of the Senate as of February 2018[update].

[59] In 2019, Perdue wrote Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a letter expressing concern that owners of professional sports teams could not take advantage of certain tax breaks.

[63] In January and February 2016, Perdue invested in Halyard stocks shortly before and after the Senate first held a hearing on the opioid epidemic in the United States.

[64] In February 2017, Perdue attempted to remove regulations the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had imposed on the prepaid debit card industry.

[65] Shortly before becoming chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower in January 2019, with jurisdiction over the Navy, Perdue bought $190,000 of stock in BWX Technologies, which builds nuclear power components for submarines.

Later, Perdue secured almost $5 billion in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act to build Virginia-class nuclear submarines built with BWX parts.

[67][68][69] On January 23, 2020, Perdue directed his financial advisers to sell over $1 million in stock of the finance firm Cardlytics weeks before its shares fell significantly.

[48] On January 24, 2020, Perdue bought around $65,000 of stock in DuPont, a company that makes personal protective equipment, on the same day as a private Senate briefing on the spread of COVID-19.

[79] During the campaign, he repeatedly made false claims that his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, is "endorsed" by the Communist Party of the United States.

[81][82] In October 2020, Perdue mocked Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris by repeatedly mispronouncing her name during a campaign event.

noted that Perdue, who had been serving with Harris in the Senate since 2017, undoubtedly knows how to pronounce her name, and some[vague] said he deliberately pretended otherwise to appeal to a largely white audience.

"[87][88][89][90] During an October 28 debate, Ossoff accused Perdue of "downplaying the threat of the coronavirus pandemic" while simultaneously "buying stocks in health care companies and selling shares in travel-related industries".

[93] On November 13, Perdue attended a packed campaign event in Cumming, Georgia, alongside senators Rick Scott and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom later tested positive for COVID-19.

[104] Recruited and endorsed by former president Donald Trump, Perdue officially announced his challenge against Brian Kemp in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election Republican primary on December 6, 2021.

[117][119] On January 11, 2018, Perdue attended a meeting at the White House at which, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation, Trump called Haiti, El Salvador and African countries "shithole nations" and said the United States should not take in immigrants from them.

He voted for the 2017 budget, which could add as much as $1.5 trillion to deficits over ten years, because he said the tax cuts could lead to more revenue due to the economic growth they would encourage.

[128] In September 2018, Perdue was one of six Republican senators (along with Jeff Flake, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey), as well as Bernie Sanders, who voted against a $854 billion spending bill for the Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor and Education departments, meant to avoid a government shutdown.

[129] Perdue opposed a proposed Rivian electric vehicle factory near Atlanta, criticizing the company during the 2022 primaries as a "George Soros-owned woke corporation" that is "seemingly inconsistent with Georgia values" (citing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and diversity and inclusion policies), and a package of $1.5 billion in taxpayer incentives he claimed were the "worst deal" he had ever seen.

[132][133] In April 2018, Perdue signed a letter asking the Trump administration to respond to revelations that North Korea was supplying some components of chemical weapons in Syria.

[135] In January 2020, Perdue expressed support for the US military's assassination of Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani by drone strike at the Baghdad International Airport.

PolitiFact rated this claim "false", noting Perdue's opposition to Obamacare and support of policies that would allow insurers not to cover all preexisting conditions.

Perdue co-sponsored the PROTECT Act (which was not voted on in the Senate), which would have allowed insurers to refuse coverage if they "will not have the capacity to deliver services adequately."

[147] After the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional in 2015, he co-sponsored legislation to allow federal contractors and employees to oppose same-sex marriage on the grounds of moral or religious convictions.