Sonny Perdue

• Born: December 20, 1946
• Birthplace: Perry, Georgia

Sonny Perdue changed his career path on more than one occasion on his way to becoming Georgia's first Republican governor since the 1800s. Unhappy as a practicing veterinarian, he became a successful small businessman. While serving in the state Senate, he grew disenchanted with the direction of the Democratic Party and switched his party affiliation. Growing Republican ranks in the South helped propel Perdue into the governor's office, but he faced ongoing challenges in reforming the state's education standards, meeting budget shortfalls, and bridging the gap between rural constituents and urban voters in Atlanta, the state's corporate center and remaining Democratic stronghold. He served two terms as governor, from 2003 to 2011. Perdue served as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Agriculture from 2017 to 2021. Following this position, Perdue was appointed as the fourteenth chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Early Life and Family

George Ervin Perdue III was born on December 20, 1946, in Perry, Georgia. Growing up in Bonaire, Georgia, he gained the nickname Sonny at an early age in order to differentiate him from his father, Ervin II. His father was a farmer while his mother, Ophie, worked as a school teacher.

According to Perdue, the farm was a "very diversified row crop farm," and his father raised wheat, corn, peanuts, and cotton, as well as some fruit. Perdue became the quarterback of the Warner Robins High School football team and would play with the Georgia Bulldogs while at the University of Georgia (UGA). As a college student, he sold sweet corn during the summer to help pay his way through school.

Perdue is married to the former Mary Ruff of Atlanta, Georgia. They have four children: Leigh, Lara, Jim, and Dan.

Veterinarian and Businessman

Perdue earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from UGA in 1971, and then entered the United States Air Force, having signed up as a freshman at the height of the Vietnam War. He worked as a veterinarian in the military through 1974, retiring with the rank of Captain. While in the service, he also earned instrument, flight instructor and multi-engine ratings. He has maintained his pilot's license for more than thirty years and owns his own single-engine plane.

After leaving the Air Force, he became a practicing veterinarian in Raleigh, North Carolina. Perdue has said that as a child he looked up to their veterinarian, a good family friend. His desire for a stable, profitable profession had drawn him to veterinary medicine, but he tired of the career after only three years.

While still working as a veterinarian, Perdue began studying the grain markets, going so far as to travel to the Midwest to "look at grain elevators and the logistics of how the grain markets worked." He knew that there was a lack of local grain elevator service for farmers in the mid-Georgia area where he grew up.

In 1976, Perdue went into business, along with his sister, Betty, and her husband Jimmy Griffin. They did much of the construction work on their new grain elevator themselves and began taking in grain in January 1977. During the 1980s, the business grew with added facilities, including one in Northwest Georgia. Today, Perdue owns Houston Fertilizer and Grain and Agrowstar Inc., both based in Bonaire, Georgia.

State Senator

Perdue served on the Houston County Planning and Zoning Board during the 1980s and was encouraged by community leaders to run for the state Senate. His friends and business contacts formed a network of supporters that became invaluable to his successful 1990 campaign.

After only four years in the state Senate, Perdue was selected to become the Democratic majority leader. During his second term, in 1997, he was elected with votes from both sides of the aisle to become president pro tempore, the second highest post in the Senate, solidifying his reputation as a political leader who could build consensus on issues across party lines.

However, he did not find consensus with new Democratic Majority Leader Charles Walker. In 1998, he announced that he was switching to the Republican Party, because the Democrats had become too liberal and no longer supported family and small business, instead falling in line with the Clinton White House. Political observers noted that his stand-off with Walker was probably a factor in his decision, as may have been the gradual move of the majority of his constituents toward the GOP.

Although he lost his leadership position, Perdue easily won reelection to the state Senate as a Republican later that year, taking 70 percent of the vote. But he was no longer able to influence legislation across party lines, as he was seen as a turncoat by his former Democratic colleagues. In 2001, following the 2000 census, the legislature redrew the Senate districts in an effort to bolster the Democratic vote, hurting the newly Republican Perdue's chances for reelection in 2002.

Running for Governor

Rather than run again, Perdue decided to resign his Senate seat in favor of a bid for the governor's office against Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes. Barnes had vastly greater resources than Perdue, due to his support from the Atlanta business community. Through September 30, 2002, Barnes had raised $17.8 million to Perdue's $2.4 million in campaign funds.

But Barnes was dogged by an ethics controversy regarding the parole board. He also had to explain to voters why Georgia student's SAT scores had dropped to 50th in the nation that year. And perhaps most damaging among conservative voters, Barnes had pushed for a new state flag, eliminating the Confederate symbol-often seen as offensive to African Americans, while Perdue called for a statewide referendum on the issue, including a choice on new designs for the flag.

Perdue focused his campaign on rural counties, calling for more local control over public schools and vowing to curtail state spending. He won convincingly, riding the wave of increasing GOP dominance in the South, taking 52 percent of the vote to Barnes' 46 percent. He became Georgia's first Republican governor in more than 130 years.

The Georgia Senate also fell to the Republicans, in part because the Democratic redistricting plan was ruled unconstitutional by the courts, and in part because following the 2002 elections three other Democratic state Senators defected to the Republican Party. Perdue said of his win that he had a "unique opportunity in history," as a Republican Governor to examine state government with fresh eyes. He called for bipartisan solutions to the state's problems, as well as for public-private partnerships with the business community.

Challenges as Governor

In his first speech to the state legislature as governor, Perdue showed his penchant for independence from traditional party lines by calling for tax increases, including increased property and tobacco taxes, in order to fill the growing state budget gap. Following a storm of public and political outcry, he rescinded his call for higher property taxes later that same month. However, he continued to push for a higher excise tax on tobacco products. These measures were ultimately defeated in the state legislature in March 2003.

While he was successful in passing some new legislation, such as a law creating tougher penalties for methamphetamine possession, Perdue continued to find that the Georgia state legislature had its own ideas on issues he had originally campaigned on, including ethics and education reform measures. Despite this, Perdue easily won reelection in 2006.

As governor, Perdue worked to improve Georgia's disaster preparedness in light of the 2009 floods that occurred throughout the southeastern United States. The floods submerged some of Georgia's busiest highways and the federal government declared the region an official disaster area.

While in office, Perdue was the subject of thirteen complaints to the state ethics commission. The commission found that he broke state ethics laws twice, once in 2002, when he transferred illegal amounts of money from his businesses into his campaign account, and again in 2005, when he was fined for improper campaign contributions and over the use of his private plane for a campaign event.

Under Georgia law, Perdue was not allowed to seek a third term as governor in 2010. He was succeeded by Republican Party colleague Nathan Deal in January 2011.

US Secretary of Agriculture

In January 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Perdue to join his Cabinet as the secretary of agriculture. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on April 24, 2017, and he took office the following day. As agriculture secretary, Perdue is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a $150 billion agency with thousands of employees.

As agriculture secretary, Perdue stated that his goals were to help young farmers get started, help rural communities, reduce regulation, increase exports of farm products, pass the 2018 Farm Bill, and address crop damage caused by the use of an insecticide known as dicamba.

In 2018, economists with the agency's Economic Research Service reported that Perdue has taken retaliatory measures against them for publishing reports that showed the negative impacts of Trump administration policies. Several economists left the agency, and in the summer of 2018, Perdue announced that he was placing the ERS under the control of the USDA's chief economist, who reports directly to him, and that the ERS would move out of the nation's capital. Furthermore, he directed ERS and other internal research branches to include disclaimers in peer-reviewed publications stating that USDA research findings were preliminary and "should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy." Critics viewed the disclaimers as Perdue's tactic to mitigate information that would have a negative impact on the Trump administration.

Perdue is well known for his skepticism toward climate change. His challenges as secretary have included facing allegations of suppressing the agency's climate scientists, their climate-related research and publications, and even discussion about climate change itself. In 2019, USDA climate scientist Lewis Ziska left his job at the agency after it prevented the publication of his groundbreaking study of how rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are causing rice, a staple grain for 600 million people globally, to lose nutrients.

Despite his climate skepticism, Perdue has expressed support for carbon markets for farmers as a way to reduce agriculture's negative environmental impact. In February 2020, the secretary made headlines when he appeared to break ranks with the Trump administration by supporting a federally imposed price on carbon emissions. A USDA spokesperson later clarified that Perdue believed that the free market could put a value on carbon in a way that would be advantageous to farmers, but that the secretary was not in favor of a carbon tax or federally instituted carbon pricing. In the same year, he was fined for violating the Hatch Act.

Bibliography

Allsop, Jon. "The Trump Administration Is Suppressing Climate Science." The Media Today, Columbia Journalism Review, 7 Aug. 2019, www.cjr.org/the‗media‗today/trump‗administration‗climate‗change.php. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

Douglas, Leah. "Secretary Perdue Is Open to Carbon Markets for Farmers, Pingree Says." Successful Farming, 15 May 2019, www.agriculture.com/news/crops/sec-perdue-is-open-to-carbon-markets-for-farmers-pingree-says. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

McCrimmon, Ryan. "Economists Flee Agriculture Dept. after Feeling Punished under Trump." Politico, 7 May 2019, www.politico.com/story/2019/05/07/agriculture-economists-leave-trump-1307146. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

Siegel, Josh, and Abby Smith. "Trump Agriculture Chief Sonny Perdue Walks Back Apparent Endorsement of Carbon Pricing." Washington Examiner, 21 Feb. 2020, www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/trump-agriculture-chief-sonny-perdue-walks-back-apparent-endorsement-of-carbon-pricing. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

"Sonny Perdue Named Chancellor of the University System of Georgia." University System of Georgia, 1 Mar. 2022, www.usg.edu/news/release/sonny‗perdue‗named‗chancellor‗of‗the‗university‗system‗of‗georgia. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

"Sonny Perdue: Secretary of Agriculture." The White House, trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/people/sonny-perdue. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.