George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III was born on December 20,1946 and is an American veterinarian, businessman, politician, and university administrator who served as the 81st governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011 and as the 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2017 to 2021.
47 Facts About Sonny Perdue
2.
Founder and partner in an agricultural trading company, Perdue was elected governor of Georgia in 2002, defeating incumbent Roy Barnes and becoming the first Republican to hold the office since the Reconstruction era.
3.
Sonny Perdue later served from 2012 to 2017 on the Governors' Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
4.
On January 18,2017, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Sonny Perdue to be Secretary of Agriculture.
5.
Sonny Perdue's nomination was transmitted to the US Senate on March 9,2017.
6.
Sonny Perdue became the second secretary of agriculture from the Deep South, after Mike Espy of Mississippi.
7.
Sonny Perdue was born in Perry, Georgia, the son of Ophie Viola, a teacher, and George Ervin Sonny Perdue Jr.
8.
Sonny Perdue grew up and still lives in Bonaire, an unincorporated area between Perry and Warner Robins.
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Sonny Perdue played quarterback at Warner Robins High School and was a walk-on at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the Beta-Lambda chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity.
10.
In 1971, Sonny Perdue earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, and worked as a veterinarian before becoming a small business owner, eventually starting three small businesses.
11.
Sonny Perdue is not related to the family who owns and operates Sonny Perdue Farms.
12.
Sonny Perdue served in the US Air Force, rising to the rank of captain before his discharge.
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Sonny Perdue defeated Republican candidate Ned Sanders in 1990 and succeeded Democratic incumbent Ed Barker as the senator representing the 18th district.
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Sonny Perdue was elected as a Democrat in 1991,1994, and 1996.
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Sonny Perdue served as his party's leader in the Senate from 1994 to 1997 and as president pro tempore.
16.
Many credit Pierre Howard for helping Sonny Perdue build the early foundation of what would become his future political career.
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Sonny Perdue switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 1998 and was re-elected to the State Senate as a Republican.
18.
In December 2001, Sonny Perdue resigned as state senator and devoted himself entirely to running for the office of Governor of Georgia.
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Sonny Perdue became the first Republican governor of Georgia in 131 years since Benjamin F Conley.
20.
Sonny Perdue advocated reforms designed to cut waste in government, most notably the sale of surplus vehicles and real estate.
21.
In January 2003, Sonny Perdue signed an executive order prohibiting himself and all other state employees from receiving any gift worth more than $25.
22.
Sonny Perdue signed the legislation into law on April 12,2005, three days before tax day.
23.
Sonny Perdue then used the new law on his 2004 tax return to defer $100,000 in taxable gains from the sale of land.
24.
In 2007, Sonny Perdue convinced a skeptical legislature to approve a $19 million fishing tourism program he called Go Fish Georgia.
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Sonny Perdue then decided that the Go Fish Education Center would be built down the road from his home.
26.
In education, Sonny Perdue promoted the return of most decision-making to the local level.
27.
Sonny Perdue created additional opportunities for charter schools and private schools.
28.
Sonny Perdue disappointed some Georgians by not making the 1956 flag one of the choices on the ballot, despite a campaign promise to do so.
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However, Sonny Perdue was faced with a Democratic House that would not allow the 1956 flag to be included in the referendum, due to its Confederate origins, and he needed support for a tobacco tax he wanted to pass to raise revenue.
30.
In 2004, Sonny Perdue sued the Environmental Protection Agency to block environmental regulations on reformulated gasoline.
31.
On November 13,2007, while Georgia suffered from one of the worst droughts in several decades, Sonny Perdue led a group of several hundred people in prayer on the steps of the state Capitol.
32.
In 2008, Sonny Perdue worked with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency to implement Ready Georgia, a campaign to increase disaster preparedness throughout the state.
33.
The floods resulted in Sonny Perdue declaring a state of emergency in 17 counties.
34.
The State Ethics Commission ruled against Sonny Perdue twice, finding that he had taken improper campaign contributions from donors including SunTrust Banks and that he had improperly used one of his family business's airplanes on the campaign, for which the commission fined the sitting governor.
35.
In mid-2003, Sonny Perdue purchased 101 acres of land next to his Houston County, Georgia, home.
36.
Sonny Perdue failed to disclose his ownership of the property in required financial disclosure forms.
37.
In December 2004, Sonny Perdue bought $2 million worth of land near Disney World from a developer who he had previously appointed to the state's economic development board.
38.
Sonny Perdue was constitutionally ineligible to seek a third consecutive term as governor in the 2010 Georgia gubernatorial election.
39.
On January 18,2017, President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Sonny Perdue to be United States secretary of agriculture.
40.
Senator David Sonny Perdue abstained, as they are first cousins.
41.
Sonny Perdue was sworn in by Supreme Court associate justice and fellow Georgian Clarence Thomas.
42.
Sonny Perdue was the designated survivor on January 30,2018, for President Trump's first State of the Union address.
43.
In February 2020, Sonny Perdue endorsed putting a price on carbon dioxide, a climate change policy favored by many economists.
44.
Sonny Perdue was the only member of the Trump administration to endorse such a plan.
45.
In June 2021, a news story broke of financial dealings Sonny Perdue had after his nomination as Secretary of Agriculture but before his confirmation.
46.
Sonny Perdue enjoys flying and, in a 2003 incident, was accused of flying a state helicopter without a license.
47.
In 2006, while still governor, Sonny Perdue made a cameo appearance as the coach of the East Carolina Pirates football team in the movie We Are Marshall, large portions of which were filmed in Georgia.