A Trump cabinet member who went the distance
Perdue, Trump’s first and only agriculture secretary, is a notable exception. The former two-term Georgia governor has kept his cabinet post until the end, maintaining a close relationship with his mercurial boss while Trump cycled through dozens of other advisers.
As the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency descended into chaos after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent Joe Biden from taking office, and some cabinet officials resigned in protest, it seems likely Perdue will be with him until the end.
Perdue gets high marks from local farmers for being a powerful advocate in Washington. Agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry, with an estimated $75 billion impact on the state’s economy, from peanuts to broiler chickens and pecans to cotton. Perdue grew up driving a watermelon wagon on a row-crop farm in middle Georgia.
“I think he’s got a farmer’s heart and he knows the challenges the growers deal with,” said Charles Hall, director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Perdue often referred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its roughly $140 billion-a-year budget as a business, and to farmers as his customers. He also shared Trump’s deregulatory fervor, slashing environmental and labor rules, and some farmers fear Tom Vilsack, President-elect Biden’s pick for agriculture secretary, could usher in more regulations.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue leaves his last official appearance at an event at the Spring Hollow Farm in Claxton, Ga. on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021 after speaking about bringing high speed internet to two rural Georgia counties. (AJC Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
But the two fires that dominated much of Perdue’s time in Washington were largely out of his control: Trump’s trade wars that cut off huge export markets like China, and COVID-19, which made it harder for farmers to get their crops to customers.
Perdue’s hand-in-glove relationship with Trump, meanwhile, made him a polarizing figure when it came to policy. To his critics, Perdue was a yes man who muffled climate science studies, triggered an exodus of researchers and tried to kick low-income Americans off food stamps.
“He’ll be remembered again and again for sidelining science, playing political games,” said Karen Perry Stillerman of the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.
Perdue didn’t escape the ethics scandals that hit Trump’s cabinet. Last fall the federal Office of Special Counsel ruled Perdue violated the Hatch Act — which forbids government employees from campaigning on the job — after he appeared with Trump in North Carolina in August and promised continued help to farmers if they voted for the president.
Republican Senator from Georgia David Perdue (M) and his cousin, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue (R), participate in a December rally at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport during the first day of early voting in the U.S. Senate runoff election in Atlanta.
Credit: EPA
Credit: EPA
This past week, the Perdue family’s political fortunes were shaken when David Perdue, Sonny’s first cousin, lost his U.S. Senate seat in Georgia’s runoff race against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. The cousins are close, helming a political machine that for years has been the envy of Georgia political circles. Sonny bunked with David when he was first being vetted to join Trump’s cabinet in 2017.
Sonny said he was in Georgia as the U.S. Capitol was overrun. He told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter he was “saddened” by Wednesday’s violence, but demurred Thursday when asked if Trump incited the crowds, saying he hadn’t read the president’s tweets. The same day, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned in protest over Trump’s role.
After Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20, Perdue said he’ll move back to Georgia and that he and his wife’s “primary constituency” will be their 14 grandchildren.
“We have a new president and we are going to bind together as Georgians, as Americans, and continue to make this country great,” said Perdue, who is 74 years old.
‘Sonny teaches me’
Trump told thousands of rapturous farmers in a New Orleans convention hall in 2019 who his go-to guy was when shaping farm policy.
“I know a lot about the farming world,” Trump told American Farm Bureau Federation members. “And, if I don’t, Sonny teaches me.”
Perdue was at his good ol’ boy best in crowds, often arriving in an RV. In his first 25 months on the job he visited all 50 states, touring nearly 100 farms and holding nearly 200 townhall discussions.
“While there are sectors of agriculture that don’t like certain administrative policies, I think his accessibility has been good out in the country,” said Dan Glickman, who served as former President Bill Clinton’s agriculture chief…