David Perdue on Jobs

2005: I spent my career outsourcing; 2014: I'm proud of that

The controversy stems from a 2005 legal deposition about Pillowtex, a North Carolina textile company, where he was CEO in 2003. "Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that," the he said when asked to describe his "experience with outsourcing." Perdue discussed his goal at Pillowtex of moving production overseas to try to save the company.

His initial response [in 2014] to the revelations didn't help put out the fire. "Defend it? I'm proud of it," he said when asked about his "career outsourcing."

"This is a part of American business. Outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run. People do that all day," he continued.

Oppose increase in the federal minimum wage

Perdue has said his experience with outsourcing wasn't about moving job overseas but obtaining products and services for companies.

At one point, Nunn asked whether Perdue supports an increase in the federal minimum wage and Perdue responded that he did not. "As I have said, if you increase the minimum wage, you will kill jobs in this country," Perdue said. "This president wants bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation. This is the plan my opponent supports."

Immigration and agriculture were also hot topics for the crowd. Perdue said he wanted to make it easier for farmers to obtain work visas and accused Nunn of not listing agriculture as a top priority in a campaign memo--something she dismissed as untrue.