Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., grabbed a Georgia Tech student’s cellphone on Saturday while he was being asked a question about alleged voter suppression in his home state.

The student was a member of the Young Democratic Socialists of America at Georgia Tech and was recording the conversation while attempting to question Perdue, who was at the Atlanta campus to campaign for Brian Kemp -- the Georgia secretary of state who is locked in a hotly contested gubernatorial race against former state lawmaker and Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.


“No, I’m not doing that. I’m not doing that,” the senator can be heard asserting as he grabs the student’s cellphone, which continued recording-- a video which was first reported by legal news site Law & Crime.

“You stole my property,” the student told Perdue immediately after losing possession of the phone. “You stole my property.”

“All right, you wanted a picture?” the senator asked

“Give me my phone back, senator,” the student, who has not been identified, replied.

“You wanted a picture? I’m going to give it to you,” the senator continued, still holding the student’s phone. “You wanted a picture?”

“Give me my phone back, senator,” the student repeated. Perdue then appeared to hand the phone back before briskly walking away from the student through a crowd -- only pausing briefly to shake hands with one woman.

“That’s U.S. Sen. David Perdue. U.S. Sen. David Perdue just snatched my phone because he won’t answer a question from one of his constituents,” the student said while following Purdue. “He’s trying to leave. He’s trying to leave because he won’t answer why he’s endorsing a candidate who’s trying to purge people from voting on the basis of their race.”

Perdue's office offered an explanation for the incident claiming there was a misunderstanding.

“Senator Perdue spent several hours meeting with hundreds of people at the Georgia Tech game this weekend. The Senator spoke with many students and answered questions on a variety of topics," a Perdue spokesperson said in a statement given to the Washington Examiner. "In this instance, the Senator clearly thought he was being asked to take a picture, and he went to take a selfie as he often does. When he realized they didn’t actually want to take a picture, he gave the phone back.”

While Perdue is not running for re-election this year, he has been campaigning for Kemp and other fellow Republicans in his state.


In a statement, the YDSA branch of Georgia Tech said, “It’s abhorrent that when our members ask their senators about the purging of voters within their state, they respond by stealing their phones, dismissing dissent, and ultimately prove that curbing of democracy is how they make capital stay in power.”


The organization told Law & Crime they are considering filing criminal charges against the sitting senator for "forcibly, suddenly, and violently [taking the] phone without justification or provocation.”