David Perdue's mispronunciation of Kamala Harris' name immediately backfires
Not even a full day after Georgia Sen. David Perdue mispronounced the name of vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris — a colleague he has served with on the Senate Budget Committee for almost four years — Perdue's Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff raised over $1 million online after circulating the clip of Perdue speaking at a rally for President Trump's re-election Friday night.
Perdue referred to Harris as "Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don’t know, whatever" while speaking to a crowd of the president's supporters in Macon, and was immediately accused of deliberately butchering and mocking her name in a racist appeal.
On Saturday, Ossoff announced that his campaign raised over $1 million in the less-than-24-hour period following Perdue's remarks, and set a goal of reaching $2 million by midnight.
For reference, his campaign raised $21.3 million over the three-month period of July, August and September, which translates to roughly $240,000 per day over that period. Ossoff reported having $8.3 million in cash on hand going into October.
A spokesperson for Perdue said, "Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris' name, and he didn't mean anything by it," but very few seemed to believe this explanation.
"Senator David Perdue has served in the Senate alongside Vice Presidential nominee and Senator Kamala Harris since 2017," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a statement. "He knows her name and he knows how to say it. His disgusting performance today is nothing more than a desperate dog whistle from a losing politician who was already caught running anti-Semitic ads against Jon Ossoff."
The Atlanta Journal Constitution's headline on the incident read, "Perdue purposely flubs Kamala Harris’ name, drawing sharp criticism," and CNN's chyron during a live broadcast read, "Georgia GOP Sen. Perdue willfully mispronounces Sen. Kamala Harris' name at Trump rally."
Regardless of whether the name flub was intentional or not, it is still a very costly mistake.
The race's most recent polling average from RealClearPolitics shows a tight race with Perdue at 46.0% support and Ossoff at 45.0% support, so it is certainly not in Perdue's best interest for Ossoff to receive a sudden cash infusion with just over two weeks until Election Day.
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