Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia is betting the farm on Trumpists. In her bitter GOP primary against Rep. Doug Collins, Loeffler notoriously cut an ad hailing her as "more conservative than Attila the Hun"—the 5th century king best known for his brutal raping and pillaging conquests. That lovely dedication clearly warmed the hearts of Peach State Republicans, and Loeffler isn't looking back.
With no legislative accomplishments to tout and more self-enriching scandals surfacing by the day, Loeffler's entire campaign relies on smearing her Democratic rival Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor, as an anti-American socialist and Marxist who would doom America as her constituents know it. She has become particularly consumed with Warnock's leadership of the storied African American church once headed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Help Georgia's grassroots get Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock elected! Give $3 right now to the groups doing critical GOTV work for a January victory.
If there was a remaining middle to be had in this election, Loeffler—who was supposedly appointed to the seat as an appeal to suburban women—has left it for dead.
But that's really the question here: Is there still a group of more moderate, sway-able voters who just might provide a slim but decisive margin in this race? Because if there is, Warnock has positioned himself to get it, talking up his belief in the "free enterprise system" and his father's work as a small business owner, according to Bloomberg News.
Meanwhile, Loeffler's efforts have focused almost solely on employing "the type of racially charged" language that will appeal to the White Southern evangelical Christians who turned out for Trump in the general election, according to Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie.
"When Loeffler ran to the right, she wasn’t just running to the right to beat Doug Collins, she stayed to the right because she needed Donald’s Trump’s base to turn out the vote,” Gillespie told Bloomberg. But “even with the shrinking middle, there’s somebody who is the middle voter,” Gillespie adds.
“If [Loeffler's] miscalculated, and that median voter actually could be more Democratic leaning in the state, then Raphael Warnock wins,” says Gillespie.
We need all hands on deck to win the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, and you can volunteer from wherever you are. Click here to see the Georgia volunteer activities that work best for you.