Sonny Perdue
American politician
George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III (born December 20, 1946) is an American politician, veterinarian, and businessman who served as the 31st United States secretary of agriculture from 2017 to 2021.
A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 81st governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011 and as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1991 to 2002.
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 in 130 years. He was reelected in 2006 with nearly 60% of the vote. He later served from 2012 to 2017 on the Governors' Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
On January 18, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Perdue to be Secretary of Agriculture. His nomination was transmitted to the U.S. Senate on March 9, 2017. His nomination was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee by a 19–1 voice vote on March 30. His appointment was approved by an 87–11 vote by the Senate on April 24. He became the second secretary of agriculture from the Deep South, after Mike Espy of Mississippi. Perdue served as Secretary of Agriculture throughout Trump's first term.
“Sonny Perdue” enters the record as american politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sonny, Perdue and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sonny Perdue” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sonny, Perdue and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q525362. VIAF identifies the subject as 78161943. The Library of Congress control number is n2003116622. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2017, 2021 and 2003.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sonny Perdue”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sonny Perdue primary sources, Sonny Perdue archive and Sonny research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sonny Perdue”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sonny Perdue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.