PERRY, Ga. – The Georgia GOP Senate candidates are spending tens of millions of dollars on an almost entirely negative advertising campaign, embracing a strategy of riling up the conservative base in hopes of generating enough turnout to win two critical runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
The senators are not trying to broaden their appeal to a cross-section of voters. The early days of the runoff races look much like the months that preceded them, with the GOP senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, filling the airwaves with scathing attack ads.
While the Democratic candidates, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, have run as pragmatists in the mold of President-elect Joe Biden, declining to endorse plans like single-payer health care or expanding the Supreme Court, the Republicans have tried to paint them as radicals fundamentally opposed to the country's core principles, warning that Democratic sway over the Senate would usher in a wave of socialism.
Loeffler and Perdue have not aired a single positive advertisement between them, according to the ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics. The breathless ad campaigns and demonizing of liberals reflect the stakes for the GOP and its voters as they try to deny Democrats total control of the White House and Congress.
Perdue said last week at a rally in Perry that his Democratic foe, Ossoff, was a "trust fund socialist who lives off his family's money making documentary movies that no one's ever watched." At the rally, Loeffler said Democratic wins would "literally shred the fabric of what makes our country the greatest in the world."
The Senate runoff elections on Jan. 5 will determine whether Biden begins his administration with a unified Congress or a divided one.
But it's how the candidates are running that has caught the eye of voters and political strategists, with an avalanche of political advertising descending on the state. The $231 million poured into TV ads so far has surpassed the spending in the entire primary and general Senate elections combined.
There is no run to the center, despite Georgia's voting for a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time in decades and proving itself to be a true battleground state.
Republicans, who are the favorites in the two races, are replicating most parts of Trump's message without him on the ballot. Democrats are seeking to build on Biden's message of unity and his electoral formula: a multiracial coalition powered by the state's urban and suburban areas.
At campaign events and debates, as well as on airwaves with more than 27 different ads currently appearing, the candidates are racing furiously to motivate their own bases instead of catering to swing voters. Both parties have bet the house on turnout, not persuasion.
Loeffler has run almost entirely negative ads against Warnock, accusing him of being "anti-police" and a "radical." The few ads she has aired that highlight her record begin with a warning: "Don't believe the liberal lies." Warnock has not run any purely negative ads, preferring positive ads on his life story and platform.
Perdue, who has rejected debating Ossoff during the runoff race, has also fueled the negative environment. Up to this point, his campaign has run 100% negative ads, including ones that say Ossoff wants to bring "horrific change."
The Perdue campaign and the Senate Leadership Fund have combined for more than $3 million in attack ads in the past week alone. One ad from the Senate Leadership Fund blasts Ossoff as simultaneously beholden to progressive Democrats and big corporations.
The campaign of Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, is a stark example of the country's shifting politics. Once thought of as a business-focused Republican, she has transformed herself into a Trump-style culture warrior.
As she faces off against Warnock, who is the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and is seeking to become the state's first Black senator, her strategy has stood out for its tone on issues of race and policing. One Loeffler ad shows a classroom of mostly white students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as a narrator intones: "This is America. But will it still be if the radical left controls the Senate?"