Republicans pivot to general election in Georgia with ads knocking Warnock and Abrams

Republicans wasted no time pivoting to the general election in Georgia, releasing two new ads Wednesday that attacked Stacey Abrams and Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic nominees in the state’s gubernatorial and Senate races, respectively.

Georgia’s sitting governor, Brian Kemp, will square off against Abrams, his gubernatorial opponent from 2018, in the fall after handily defeating former Sen. David Perdue in Tuesday’s GOP primary by 52 points. Despite former President Donald Trump’s vendetta against Kemp over his refusal to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 election results, most of the Republican establishment rallied around him.

KEMP CELEBRATES BIG PRIMARY WIN OVER PERDUE AND SHIFTS FOCUS TO ABRAMS

That includes the Republican Governors Association, which has poured around $5 million into the state so far. The group pledged continued support for Kemp after Perdue conceded the race Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, its political action committee had released an ad attacking Abrams.

“As we were in the primary, the RGA is all-in and we will be there to ensure Governor Kemp is re-elected this Fall,” the association’s co-chairmen, Govs. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Doug Ducey of Arizona, said in a statement.

The ad attacks Abrams as only out to serve her own interests and not those of Georgia voters.

“Typical Stacey Abrams. She believes only she knows what’s best,” a voiceover says in the ad. The 30-second spot highlights her past views on COVID-19 lockdowns, dubbing her “Shutdown Stacey,” and suggests she would support higher taxes if elected governor.

“Stacey thinks she can spend your money better than you,” the ad says. “In Stacey Abrams’s Georgia, it’s all about her, not you.”

In the Senate race, Republican Herschel Walker, who beat his nearest GOP rival by 55 points Tuesday, will compete for Warnock’s seat after the incumbent won one of two special elections in 2021 that handed Democrats control of the upper chamber. Republicans need to net a single seat in the evenly divided Senate to win back the majority this year.

Walker’s campaign released an ad Wednesday that paints Warnock as a partisan who votes in lockstep with President Joe Biden and Democratic leadership, citing record-high gas prices and inflation as reasons to vote against him.

“Raphael Warnock. When he stands with them, he’s not with us,” the ad splashes in large font across the screen.

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Though both Republicans trounced the competition in their GOP primaries, the general election is expected to be far more competitive. The race for the governor’s mansion is a rematch of the 2018 election in which Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams by 55,000 votes. Abrams refused to concede the race and has for years baselessly claimed the election was rigged. Kemp currently leads in the RealClearPolitics average of polls by 5 points.

The polling is even tighter in the Senate race, with Walker only leading by 0.5 points on average. Although political conditions are favorable for Republicans this election cycle, Walker, who has the backing of Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will have to overcome past allegations of domestic abuse.