Ten days ago, results of a Quinnipiac University poll stunned Georgia Republicans: Democrat Jon Ossoff was actually leading Republican Sen. David Perdue 51% to 45% among likely voters statewide.
Freshman Sen. Perdue may have aroused opponents to work even harder when he mispronounced the name of Democrat vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris at a rally in Atlanta Friday shortly before President Donald Trump took to the stage.
"Kamala, or Kamala, or Kamala, or Kamala-mala-mala," Perdue said, emphasizing different syllables. "I don't know. Whatever." As California Sen. Harris' own official biography explains, her first name is pronounced "'Comma-la,' like the punctuation mark."
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders supporting the Biden-Harris ticket hit this hard on social media, calling Perdue's words "back-handed racism."
The senator's spokesman said he "simply mispronounced Senator Harris' name, and he didn't mean anything by it."
Despite condemnation from Democrats and the liberal media, Republicans in the Peach State are not so sure the mispronunciation will be fatal to Perdue.
"It strikes me that his mispronunciation turned off the media and the Left more than the voter," former Georgia Rep. John Linder, a past chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Newsmax. "It is worth noting that Biden has mangled her name several times. I don't think this has any long-term impact. I still think David's a 5- to 7-point winner."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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