RUTLEDGE, Ga. — Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue on Tuesday harshly criticized Gov. Brian Kemp for working to recruit electric vehicle maker Rivian to a site near Rutledge by using private negotiations and "ignoring locals' concerns."
Perdue, who is campaigning to oust Kemp from the governor's office this year, said Kemp was acting like "a typical 20-year career politician" by not including area residents in the process of reviewing the California-based company's plans.
He told those attending a rally at Play Fair Park opposing construction of a production facility that he heard the state government was investing $125 million in incentives and infrastructure to recruit the company.
"To me, it looks like an election-year giveaway," Perdue said. "You're going to pay the price and so are taxpayers for decades. You don't do it this way."
Good economic development produces employers that are "consistent with the local community" after "local community buy-in," he said.
"Hard-working folks like you, you're going to get some of the jobs, but why not be involved in the process?"
Some area residents have complained about the lack of transparency in the process of recruiting Rivian before the project was announced in mid-December.
Local industrial recruiters involved in the process have said companies typically will not locate anywhere if negotiations on a deal are done publicly.
Rivian’s early plans call for a 16-million-square-foot production, training and research facility on a 2,000-acre site running along the north side of I-20 and straddling the line between Walton and Morgan counties. It will employ 7,500, the company has said.
The state government took control of the site from the four-county Joint Development Authority in recent weeks — a move that allows the project to move ahead without local government reviews.
Perdue said, as governor, he would approve projects similar to Rivian if local residents had more input before a deal was finalized.
He said Kemp should have rejected Rivian's plans when he heard billionaire George Soros was a major investor in Rivian. Soros invested $2 billion in Rivian, Perdue said.
"Kemp's calling that economic development," he said.
Soros also has been a major contributor to a series of Democratic candidates and liberal endeavors.
"He sold us out right here in Rutledge, Georgia. He sold us out to somebody who doesn't have our best interest at heart ... George Soros," Perdue said.
Perdue said his time leading Dollar General Corp. was a success for the company "because we listened" to what customers wanted.
"I'm just a business guy, not a career politician. I've spent my life creating thousands of valuable American jobs. This is not the way you do it.
"We can create jobs without buying it, like we did here. We can invest in rural Georgia without kicking our communities to the curb.”
He added he supported a call for Morgan County residents to be allowed to vote in a public referendum on the Rivian plan.
Perdue served as one of Georgia's two U.S. senators from 2015 to 2021. He lost re-election in a January 2021 runoff to current U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
The former Fortune 500 executive entered the race for the GOP nomination for governor after former President Donald Trump encouraged him to run against Kemp — whom Trump blames for not intervening in tabulation of the 2020 election results showing Trump narrowly lost in Georgia to President Joe Biden.
Trump has endorsed Perdue, as well as congressional candidate Vernon Jones who also spoke during the Tuesday rally.
Madison resident Lynn Beckham said after Perdue's speech that she opposed the Rivian plan because it would "destroy" the rural nature of the area and the small-town feel of Rutledge.
"I don't think this is the right thing for this area," she said.
