GAINESVILLE, Fla. — U.S. Sen. David Perdue said Thursday he was forced to quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus, scrambling the final days of a runoff campaign for control of the U.S. Senate.
In a statement, the Republican’s campaign said he and his wife, Bonnie, tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday morning and are isolating as a precaution after learning they had been in close contact with an unidentified member of his staff who contracted the disease.
It meant that Perdue had to sit out a joint campaign event scheduled Thursday with fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, but it was not immediately clear how it would shape the rest of the busy campaign schedule ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
Perdue had scheduled more stops on a statewide bus tour over the weekend and was set to appear with President Donald Trump on a runoff eve rally on Monday.
Campaign spokesman John Burke wouldn’t say whether Perdue planned to attend the rally, whether he would need to request an absentee ballot to vote, or offer any additional details about the staffer who contracted the disease.
Perdue and Loeffler have kept an aggressive campaign schedule as they try to generate tremendous election day turnout on Tuesday to erase what appears to be a sizable early-voting advantage for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Perdue, a first-term former Fortune 500 chief executive, is the latest high-profile Georgia politician forced to self-isolate after being possibly exposed to the disease, which has killed more than 10,000 Georgians and sickened more than 550,000 others.
Loeffler went into self-quarantine after she tested positive for the disease in late November, but then emerged from quarantine after subsequent tests showed she was negative.
And days before the November election, Gov. Brian Kemp went into self-quarantine after U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson disclosed he tested positive for the coronavirus. The two Republican politicians had attended a crowded indoor political event together shortly before the announcement.
Though Loeffler and Perdue often wear face masks, their campaign events regularly draw large crowds where few use face coverings and socially distancing is impossible.
At the Thursday GOP event, a country music concert at Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center in Gainesville featuring Riley Green, organizers required face masks for the hundreds of people in front of the stage, though they were bunched up shoulder-to-shoulder in cramped confines.
