Candidates vying to unseat U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler in Georgia put out campaign ads Wednesday as the race enters a new voter-outreach phase, notably via the first television spot aired by the leading Democratic contender.
Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic challenger who has amassed millions in donations and endorsements from top party leaders, released his campaign’s first ad Wednesday highlighting his background and focus on health care, workers’ issues and voting rights.
The senior pastor from Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church is angling to boost his name recognition after sitting on the airwave sidelines so far in the campaign. In the ad, he emphasizes his roots growing up in a Savannah housing project while walking down the sidewalk outside his childhood home.
“I’m Raphael Warnock and I realize that a kid growing up here today and struggling families all across Georgia have it harder now than I did back then,” Warnock says in the ad. “That’s gotta change, and it will.”
Also releasing a new ad Wednesday was U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, who has peppered Loeffler with attacks for months as he seeks to pull Republican support from her ahead of the special election on Nov. 3.
Collins in the ad touts his support for President Donald Trump and recent praise the president has given him, marking a departure from Collins’ last ad that homed in on controversial stock trades Loeffler made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Casting Collins as the president’s “most tested, proven, trusted defender,” the latest ad features footage of Collins backing Trump during last year’s impeachment proceedings in the U.S. House of Representatives and glowing words the president made about Collins at a recent stop in Atlanta.
Trump, a Republican, has a track record of giving GOP candidates a big boost with his endorsement but so far has stayed out of the battle between Loeffler and Collins. Both have received public praise from the president in recent weeks.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman who was appointed to retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat earlier this year, has tapped her huge campaign war chest to run ads touting her early work in the Senate and attacking Collins’ background as a former criminal defense attorney.
Ads supporting Loeffler, who has put $15 million of her own money into the campaign so far, have also aired from a political action committee with ties to Gov. Brian Kemp, who appointed Loeffler.
The Nov. 3 election is an open election, meaning candidates from all parties will be on the same ballot. It has drawn 21 candidates including Loeffler. A runoff between the top two finishers will be held in January if no candidate gains a simple majority.