David Perdue is campaigning on Donald Trump's Big Lie. Senate Republicans are unimpressed

In Georgia’s 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary, former Sen. David Perdue has focused relentlessly on former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen — repeatedly slamming incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp for acknowledging Joe Biden as the United States’ legitimately elected president. And Trump has endorsed Perdue. But some of Perdue’s Republican former colleagues in the U.S. Senate, according to CNN reporters Manu Raju and Alex Rogers, are in no hurry to help him.

Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, discussing Perdue’s obsession with the Big Lie, told CNN, “I don’t know whether he believes it or not. I really don’t. But I’m sure it’s a political strategy.”

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was especially critical of Perdue, telling CNN, “It’s absurd. I think the effort to try and overturn an election when there is, at this stage, no evidence of widespread fraud is detrimental to democracy and insulting to the American public.”

A recurring theme among the Republican senators CNN interviewed is that Perdue would be better off focusing on the future than dwelling on the past.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN, “Well, I like David, but you know, if Kemp wins, it means that people looked at beyond 2020. That’s the only conclusion you can come to.”

Similarly, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa told CNN that obsessing over the 2020 presidential election “just makes us look like we’re a party that looks to the past rather than the future.”

So far, campaigning on the Big Lie doesn’t appear to be helping Perdue in the polls. An Insider Advantage/Fox 5 Atlanta poll released in early May found Kemp ahead of Perdue by 16%.