Abrams and Warnock have very different strategies when it comes to important races in Georgia

ATLANTA — Democratic candidates in the two Georgia marquee races are flashing TV ads into the airwaves — giving voters two distinctly different pitches.

A new spot by Democratic nominee for governor Stacey Abrams portrays her as a “math genius” with bold progressive ideas to raise teachers’ salaries, expand childcare and fund preschool. Another ad promises to use Georgia’s surplus for new stimulus checks on the middle class and expand affordable housing.

Meanwhile, Senator Raphael Warnock is running as an independent-minded lawmaker, highlighting bipartisan efforts like capping insulin costs while seeking a full six-year term. An ad advertises his work with Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama to protect peanut farmers. Another includes testimonials from GOP picky voters saying they are supporting Warnock this fall.

The ads reflect two diverging Democrat visions on how to win Georgia, a former Republican bastion that narrowly voted for President Joe Biden and two Democratic senators in the 2020 election cycle. Abrams relies heavily on grassroots mobilization to inspire and register disaffected Georgians and boost progressive turnout. Warnock places a greater emphasis on courting the center and appeals to soft Republicans and center-right independents, including white college grads in the booming Atlanta area who don’t feel comfortable with a GOP transformed by former President Donald Trump.

As early voting begins, polling averages show a notable split in party preferences: Warnock leads Republican challenger Herschel Walker by about 4 percentage points, while Abrams trails GOP Gov. Brian Kemp by about 5 points.

“They are running two very different campaigns,” said an aide to Kemp, who was granted anonymity to candidly assess Democrats’ strategy. “It’s pretty obvious when you look at their speeches and ads and their social media.”

Abrams is “not so much in the business of persuasion; She’s in the mobilization business,” the Kemp adviser said, attributing Warnock’s relative success in 2020 and his lead in this year’s race to his focus on “mid-level political positions” like cutting the cost of prescription drugs, rather than emphasizing “some of these more left-leaning issues.”

A recent Quinnipiac University poll of likely Georgia voters found Warnock outscored Abrams by 14 points among independents over their rivals. Among Republicans, Warnock had 7% while Abrams had 3%. Both were equally dominant among the Democrats.

Their mixed fortunes can also be shaped by their opponents. Walker brings with him a turbulent past, allegations of domestic violence and recent stories that he paid an ex-girlfriend for an abortion in 2009, which he denies. Kemp doesn’t carry the same baggage.

Melissa Clink, the Democratic leader in conservative Forsyth County outside of Atlanta, said the local party has noticed a “gap” in support for Warnock and Abrams, which she called “staggering.”

Democratic volunteers knocking on doors in the area were hit by voters who said “they’re thinking about voting for Kemp, but they’re also thinking about voting for Warnock,” Clink said in an interview. “So I think we’re going to see some really interesting splits.”

Clink attributed Warnock’s superior Abrams to several factors. For one, she said Kemp’s denial of Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election is “important” to independents, while Walker is a longtime friend of Trump’s who handpicked him to run for the Senate. “I think independents would definitely shy away from a candidate who would be a Trump supporter.”

A staple of Warnock’s blunt speech is his amendment with far-right Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to strengthen the Interstate 14 corridor to the south, which passed unanimously in the infrastructure bill. “Ted Cruz and I made a change!” he recently told a crowd, sparking a mixture of surprise and laughter. “Yes we have got that.”

“There is a path through our humanity that is greater than partisan politics,” Warnock added.

In a recent debate, when Walker attempted to undermine that image and paint Warnock as a stamp for Biden, Warnock boasted that he had “opposed the Biden administration” to keep a combat training readiness center open in Savannah.

Still, Warnock chooses his moments to appeal to progressives after becoming an outspoken voice in Washington abolishing the Senate filibuster to pass federal voting rights legislation. After voting early Monday, he aired his pressure on Biden to cancel federal student-loan debt as he stood alongside students from Morehouse College.

At a debate Monday, Abrams was given the opportunity to ask Kemp a question, and she highlighted an issue important to non-white Georgia constituencies and asked him about his plan to close the “racial justice gap” in contracts and purchases for “minority property.” “ tackle company.”

“We need a governor who really believes in justice — racial justice, economic justice — for the people of Georgia,” Abrams said.

In 2018, Abrams lost her run for governor by around 55,000 votes. Her aggressive voter registration campaign made her a hero among progressives — some credit her efforts to the Democrats’ victories in blueprinting Georgia two years later. Yet their struggles this cycle have sparked a new debate about the limits of mobilization alone and the need for crossover appeal to win this purple state.

“There are some voters – many voters – who are already quite set in their minds. And of course there’s a group in the middle that has yet to make a decision,” said Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop, who is facing re-election in Georgia’s most divided House of Representatives district, after a debate Sunday in Atlanta with GOP opponent Chris west .

Clink theorized that Abrams’ “celebrity status” may have caused some Georgians to wonder if she’s in touch with her “roots” back home, which she says “couldn’t be further from the actual truth , but unfortunately perception is important.” And she said sexism is a factor: “As a woman and as a black woman, she’s questioned a lot more anyway. Even if she didn’t run for governor, she would suffer negative backlash just for existing.”

Clink said Democrats needed to keep telling voters that Abrams “would start from day one to transform the lives of Georgians by expanding Medicaid, which is what we’ve been fighting for here for years.”

As for Warnock, she said, “I think it’s really important for him to showcase his crossover appeal.”