Loeffler and Perdue pushing hard-line pitch in Ga. runoffs
ATLANTA—The merchandise featured in Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s online campaign store includes T-shirts and bumper stickers bearing Donald Trump’s name and the message: “Still my president.”
The Georgia Republican is running television ads ahead of Tuesday’s Senate runoff elections that lambastes her opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, as “dangerous” and “radical.”
Loeffler ’s colleague, Sen. David Perdue, meanwhile, is warning Georgians that Democrats will enact a “socialist agenda” if his challenger, Jon Ossoff, wins Tuesday.
In the final days of campaigns that will decide control of the U.S. Senate, the Republican incumbents are appealing to the most conservative part of the electorate. Their steady embrace of the hard-right, Trump wing of the GOP — even repeatedly refusing to acknowledge Trump’s defeat — and their caricatures of the Democratic challengers may seem like a risky approach in a state that narrowly voted for Joe Biden for president in November after years of steady Democratic gains.
Yet the strategy reflects prevailing GOP wisdom in the Trump era: Republicans’ clearest path to victory, even in swing states, is to drive up support among a GOP base motivated by allegiance to the president and fear of Democrats. Still, the approach comes at the expense of a once-broader Republican coalition that included more urban and suburban moderates and GOP-leaning independents who have rejected the Republican brand under Trump.
“The president resonates with a lot of people, and so do the buzzwords, so you hear ‘Trump’ and ‘socialism’ a lot,” said Michael McNeely, a former vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party. Trump may have complicated Perdue’s and Loeffler’s gamble with how he’s handled his defeat to Biden. The president has spread unfounded assertions of voter fraud and blasted Georgia Republican officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp, who have defended the elections process. When Trump allies, including Perdue and Loeffler, backed up the claims, some Republicans expressed concern it could discourage some Trump loyalists from voting in the runoff. Now, other Republicans are worried that GOP candidates have turned off the more moderate voters repelled by Trump. “No Republican is really happy with the situation we find ourselves in,” said Chip Lake, a longtime GOP consultant and top adviser to Loeffler’s vanquished rival, Rep. Doug Collins. “But sometimes when you play poker, you have to play the hand you’re dealt, and for us that starts with the president.” Trump will visit Georgia for a final rally with Loeffler on Monday evening, hours before polls open. It is unclear whether Perdue will attend. The senator said Thursday ing after being he was exposed quarantin- to an aide who tested positive for coronavirus. November returns
demonstrate the GOP snare. Biden beat Trump by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in Georgia, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992. Biden’s record vote total for a Democrat in the state was fueled by racially and ethnically diversifying metro areas but also shifts in key Atlanta suburbs where white voters have historically leaned Republican.
Yet Perdue landed within a few thousand votes of Trump’s total and led Ossoff by about 88,000 votes. Republican turnout also surged in small towns and rural areas, while Georgia Democrats had a disappointing general election down-ballot, failing to make expected gains in legislative races.
Lake andMcNee ly predicted that hard-right attacks and Trump-centric appeals won’t deliver votes beyond the base and amid a crush of advertising in a runoff campaign whose total expense could top $500 million.
“We reached the point of diminishing returns a long time ago,” Lake said.
Early voting ended Thursday with just more than 3 million Georgians casting absentee or in-person ballots. That trails the final early vote count of 3.65 million ahead of the general election.