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Trump received! Trump misplaced. Whatevs, simply vote Republican
“I promise you, we will keep fighting,” Pence told voters in Columbus, Georgia, at a rally intended to boost the candidacies of GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. “We can fight for our president, and we can fight for more Republicans in the United States Senate at the same time. We can do both. We’ve been doing both.”
Inspiring. Nothing says “Vote!” like continuing to insist the election was unfairly stolen from Trump in a state run by Republicans.
This week alone, GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded that Biden won the election, Trump countered that it was “too soon to give up,” Sen. Loeffler refused to rule out contesting the results during congressional certification in January, and Sen. Perdue gingerly suggested Republicans must vote to protect Trump’s legacy.
“We have to hold the line to make sure that what we’ve accomplished under Donald Trump and Mike Pence, that we hold on to what we’ve accomplished — the regulatory work, the tax work, the energy work,” Perdue said at the same rally where Pence spoke.
At the same time, McConnell-affiliated super PACs have left Trump for dead, arguing instead that the GOP Senate Majority is the last line of defense against Democratic domination in Washington, according to The Washington Post. McConnell’s PACs are also gunning to erase the fundraising advantages of Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, reserving roughly $150 million worth of broadcast advertising over the two-month window between the Nov. 3 election and Jan. 5.
And Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has suffered withering criticism from Trump for not delivering the state, has a more pointed message for Trump’s most fervent supporters.
“It has gotten ridiculous — from death threats, (claims of) bribes from China, the social media posts that my children are getting,” Kemp told reporters following a vaccine event. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Kemp took particular issue with posters who have directed conspiracy theories at his daughter Lucy about the deadly auto accident this month that killed her longtime boyfriend, Harrison Deal.
“I can assure you I can handle myself,” Kemp said. “And if they’re brave enough to come out from underneath that keyboard or behind it, we can have a little conversation if they would like to.”
Sen. Perdue did cut an ad this week that included Trump encouraging Republicans to vote on Jan. 5. Whether that message can break through remains to be seen, but it sure as heck has a lot of competition on the right while the Democrats are damn near a vision of harmony on the left.
As of Thursday, more than 1.1 million people had already cast ballots in the runoffs between early in-person and absentee voting—”a huge turnout,” as AJC‘s Greg Bluestein notes, suggesting incredibly high voter participation.