The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List is launching a $4 million campaign to reach Spanish-speaking voters in Georgia to encourage support for Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in a pair of critical Jan. 5 runoffs.
The Susan B. Anthony List is running advertisements through Women Speak Out, its affiliated super PAC. Its latest spot targets the 100,000 Hispanic voters in Georgia that the group estimates oppose abortion rights and features Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui speaking directly to the camera. Polls show contests between Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock, as well as Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. Democrats will capture the Senate if they win both runoff elections.
“Georgia Latinos are pro-life. That’s why it’s important to let them know that both Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, support an extreme abortion agenda,” said Alfonso Aguilar of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, in a statement issued by Susan B. Anthony List and Women Speak Out. “I am convinced that Latinos in Georgia will vote to defend the right to life.”
The group plans to invest $4.1 million on voter turnout, including in-person canvassing and text message communications, plus advertising on an array of platforms, including digital, radio, and direct mail. Overall, Susan B. Anthony List hopes to reach 1 million voters with its messaging by Election Day. In the advertisement unveiled Friday, Verastegui speaks straight to the camera, in Spanish, urging support for Loeffler and Perdue.
“The immediate future of this country is in your hands. Your vote is essential,” he says as the spot opens, according to an English translation. “It’s up to you to make sure that Republicans keep the Senate in January so they can block the socialist agenda of the Democratic Party. Save the Senate by voting for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.”
The Democrats, Verastegui claims in the ad, “will also seek to promote a radical abortion agenda and use taxpayer money to finance Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country. Abortion is the great separator of families. It separates children from their parents forever.”
Loeffler was appointed to the Senate in January after Republican Johnny Isakson departed the chamber for health reasons. She finished second in a crowded special election held on Nov. 3 to select a permanent successor to Isakson but advanced to the runoff after Warnock, who finished first, failed to crack 50% of the vote.
Perdue, seeking a second term, topped Ossoff in the regularly scheduled general election held the same day, but a runoff was triggered when he fell just shy of the 50% threshold. Republicans and aligned groups are scrambling to hold off the Democrats in round two of the Georgia Senate elections to avoid being shut out of power in Washington after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
