Sen. David Perdue on 2016 Election: ‘The Political Class is Not Listening’

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) joined Fox Business on Super Tuesday and said the electorate in the presidential election parallels what he saw during his senate race — a frustration with the political class.

“Today, there is a political class. And that is what you’re seeing in the presidential race, and I saw it in my race. It’s that people want to be heard in Washington, and the political class is not listening,” Perdue said during an interview on Fox Business.

Politics in America used to be one dimension. It was based in ideology, liberal versus conservative, and in my race we talked about the debt, the economy, jobs and what was wrong in Washington, and we struck a vein. There is a vein of disenfranchised voters in America, and that’s what is happening right now. I think the pendulum has swung to another axis. It’s the political class versus everybody else.

Perdue said he is concerned that in ten debates, he doesn’t think the candidates have discussed the national debt enough.

I’ve been staying out of this and not endorsing anybody because I am trying to influence these campaigns to talk about the debt, and how the debt interlocks with the global security crisis. We’re at the point now, because of this debt, where it’s threatening our national security and our ability to defend our country. That’s what we’re talking about right now, and I hope to hear that in the coming weeks.

Perdue said he believes the growing debt is correlated with the lack of Congressional term limits.

There’s no surprise, frankly, that there is a correlation between this growing debt crisis and the fact that we don’t have term limits. We have almost 60 U.S. Senators who have been in elected office of one kind or another, for over 20 years. 36 Senators have been in elected office for more than 30 years. I just don’t think the Founding Fathers ever had that in mind. It was too onerous to serve in Congress.

Perdue’s homestate is one of the dozens of states that votes on Super Tuesday. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump currently has the lead in that state, according to Real Clear Politics, polling by 14 percent.