Vanquished Senator Eyes a Comeback

David Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff in the January 5 Georgia runoff election, but the Republican may very well be back. On Monday, he filed campaign paperwork to explore a 2022 run, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He'd be running against Sen. Raphael Warnock, though, the Democrat who beat another former GOP senator, Kelly Loeffler, in a bid to finish out the remaining two years of retired Republican Johnny Isakson’s term. Warnock will be up for re-election to a full six-year term in 2022, and Loeffler is also reportedly considering running against him again in that race.

As is former US Rep. Doug Collins, who battled it out with Loeffler to face Warnock in the January runoff, and quite a few other fairly well-known names. (More on the 2022 "mess" in Georgia here.) Loeffler and Collins are reportedly waiting to see what Perdue decides, and others likely are as well: "I think this would freeze the field," a veteran GOP strategist in Georgia tells Fox News. "The field is now officially frozen until David says he’s in or he’s out." A senior Perdue adviser says the former senator is "leaning heavily toward" a 2022 run, will decide by March 1, and will announce by April if the decision is yes. Politico notes that if it is, Perdue will start with $5.7 million already in his campaign account; that's how much was left over after the runoff. (More David Perdue stories.)