GOP Fight Over Georgia Senate Seat Intensifies
An intraparty Republican fight over a Georgia Senate seat is intensifying, as campaign vendors face pressure not to work with a congressman trying to unseat the state’s newly appointed senator. The battle pits 53-year-old Rep. Doug Collins, a four-term conservative congressman and staunch defender of President Trump, against Sen. Kelly Loeffler, 49, a business executive with no political experience who has tens of millions of dollars of personal funds to spend on a campaign.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Ms. Loeffler to replace Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, who left office at the end of 2019 because of declining health. Under state law, the governor can appoint senators temporarily, but candidates must run to fill out the rest of the term at the next general election. Some Republicans worry that a divisive fight would hurt the party’s prospects against the Democratic nominee in November. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters, regardless of party, will compete in a Jan. 5 runoff. Whoever wins the general election would be up for re-election for a new six-year term again in 2022.
Mr. Collins appeared on Fox News in late January to say he would run, too. Within days, at least three campaign vendors dropped him as a client under pressure from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, according to two people familiar with the matter.
(snip)
The NRSC has blasted Rep. Collins’s decision to run as selfish.
(snip)
The GOP split opens the door for a possible Democratic win in November. Under state law, all candidates run against each other in such a vote without a party primary first. The Rev. Raphael Warnock, the African-American pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, is seen as a leading Democratic candidate with backing from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Supporters of Mr. Collins pushed state legislators to quickly pass a law to add a primary, which would help Mr. Collins because primary voters tend to be more conservative. But Mr. Kemp promised to veto any such bill.
More..
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-fight-over-georgia-senate-seat-intensifies-11581508800
= new reply since forum marked as read
