atlanta — Two months of races have begun ahead of Georgia’s May 19 primaries and U.S. Senate races, with finalists qualifying Friday for crucial positions in the hotly contested swing state.
Republicans looking to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff are touting their support for President Donald Trump and focusing more on criticizing the incumbent Democratic president than each other. Candidates to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp are vying for office in widely open Republican and Democratic fields.
Qualifying in Georgia is a week-long political festival at the state Capitol where candidates try their best and try to show their strength. Here’s a look at what people said:
Opposing Ossoff are Republicans including U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter as well as former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley.
Ossoff rallied with supporters on Monday, saying voters should re-elect him because they “realize that this president has gone too far, and that chaos, corruption, and cruelty are wrong for Georgia and wrong for the country.”
Voters see “a need for checks and balances” against Trump, Ossoff said, warning that “my opponents will be his puppets.”
Collins described Ossoff as “California’s third senator.” Collins touted endorsements including Wednesday’s endorsement by The Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group.
“We need to spend every minute we have making sure this country is safe, making sure it’s productive, making sure the people here are affordable,” Collins said.
Dooley said his years as a coach have given him the ability to reach people who wouldn’t normally vote Republican.
“It’s important that we have a candidate who can appeal to a lot of these crossover voters, people who don’t always vote in the midterms, who don’t always vote Republican,” he said.
Carter had one thing on his mind when he scored to qualify: “We have to get rid of Jon Ossoff.”
“My plan is to win,” Carter said. “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.”
Republican Rick Jackson found himself shaking hands with schoolchildren on Friday after becoming the latest major candidate to qualify for governor, with the health care baron saying that despite his big ad spending, “there’s no way to buy the election. You have to earn it.”
Lt. Gov. Bert Jones, who was endorsed by Trump, said he was unfazed by Jackson’s cheerful entrance into a field of eight Republicans.
“The novelty will wear off, and they will look to someone who has been more consistent over the years,” Jones said. “And I own that.”
Despite the Georgia Republican Party’s resolution last year calling on party officials to deny Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger a pass, he signed the papers Wednesday without a hitch. The decision shows the deep hostility that many Republican activists have toward Raffensperger after he refused to help Donald Trump Projecting his loss in the 2020 election In Georgia.
Raffensperger sidesteps these questions in his run for governor, saying, “The most important thing now is how you deal with this affordability crisis and create good-paying jobs.”
Attorney General Chris Carr, the fourth major Republican candidate, touts his record on creating jobs and fighting crime, saying people “care about jobs, safety, education and affordability.”
“They don’t really want to talk about social issues in the traditional way that the right and the left do,” Carr said, even though Jackson and Jones were competing over the treatment of transgender children and adults.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, considered by many to be the front-runner among the eight Democrats running for governor, told reporters Monday that her issues, including affordability, free technical college and cutting state income taxes on teachers, will appeal not only to Democrats but also general election voters who have not elected Democrats for the past 24 years.
“I’m speaking the truth about what I feel a leader and governor in this state should be delivering to the people, so I don’t have to worry about changing my message to a general election audience,” Bottoms said.
Republican-turned-Democrat Jeff Duncan again touted his potential appeal, saying he is “focused on the affordability crisis, the health care crisis, and unfortunately still the Donald Trump crisis.”
Former state Sen. Jason Esteves touted his own platform, but also directed some fire at Bottoms and Duncan. He noted that Bottoms chose not to run for a second term as mayor, and that Duncan, after supporting Republican policies as lieutenant governor that he now denies, has also exited the political arena.
“We cannot afford for people to remain silent, nor to have people who will be absent or quit when things get tough,” Esteves said.
Former DeKalb County Executive Mike Thurmond wept as he touted his low-income upbringing as a black man to his track record of political success today as evidence of the “American dream.”
“I’m here representing all those Georgians who can’t be here today, who are pulling two jobs, working overtime, who can’t pay their insurance,” he said.