After Gov. Brian Kemp’s victory in the Georgia governor’s race, both Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Herschel Walker are seeking to tie themselves to the Republican incumbent as they battle for the Peach State’s Senate seat.
Kemp handily defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in the governor’s race, garnering 53.4% of the vote compared to Abrams’s 45.9%. As a result, both Senate candidates have sought to use Kemp’s electoral success to their advantage, tying themselves to his popularity in an effort to boost their campaigns.
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“Governor Kemp is one of — if not the most important — pieces of the puzzle for a Walker victory on Dec. 6,” strategist Stephen Lawson told Axios.
A political action committee aligned with Walker quickly seized on Kemp’s win, launching a slew of anti-Warnock mailers that feature the Republican governor urging voters to oust the Democratic senator. One such mail piece was sent directly to split-ticket voters who had cast their ballots for Kemp and Warnock during the general election, telling them, “You stopped Stacey. Now reject Warnock.”
There are roughly 200,000 Georgia voters who split their tickets during the November election, crossing party lines to vote for both Kemp and Warnock. Now, both campaigns are targeting the crucial voting bloc to secure a win in December.
Warnock’s campaign has sought to use split-ticket voters to its advantage, featuring a number of such Georgians in TV ads to convince others to back the Democrat.
“I just can’t get past Herschel Walker’s lack of character,” says voter Lynn Whittenburg in one such ad.
The Democratic Party of Georgia is also elevating these split-ticket voters, hosting a press conference on Saturday that featured Kemp-Warnock voters urging other Georgians to reject Walker’s bid.
“[Walker] simply just has too much baggage to be an effective leader,” said Blake Briese, one of the two speakers at the event.
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Kemp has thrown his support behind Walker, appearing alongside the former NFL player on the campaign trail after his reelection victory despite keeping his distance throughout much of the midterm cycle.
“That’s why we need Herschel Walker in the United States Senate. He will go and fight for the values that we believe in here in our state,” Kemp said during a campaign event over the weekend. “Don’t believe the political pundits who say this race doesn’t matter anymore. … It matters.”
