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Early voting for the Georgia Senate runoff elections started Monday as outside groups are converging on the state to stump for the four candidates and boost base turnout with Senate control on the line.
One of the outside groups stepping into the runoffs is the Keep America America Action Fund super PAC, which supported President Trump in the presidential election. It is starting a bus tour on Monday through Georgia in support of incumbent Republican Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. The tour will make 23 stops in six days and post 48 billboards in the state.
Meanwhile, NextGen America, the progressive group founded by billionaire Democratic booster and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer, is pushing a remote phone banking effort in support of Democrat challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
"Here’s a great way to call voters in Georgia and help them get ready to vote. A couple hours this weekend could help Democrats win the Senate," former President Barack Obama said in a tweet.
"Don't boo, phonebank!" NextGen America said in response, referencing Obama's popular line, "Don't boo, vote."
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The rush of outside groups to the Peach State underscores the unique stakes of the runoffs. The results of the two elections will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate for the next two years. Democrats must sweep the Georgia races while Republicans only need to win one to secure a majority.
"Basically the contrast on the outcome is the Democrats control the Senate," David McIntosh, the president of the conservative Club for Growth, said while discussing the Club for Growth Action super PAC's own bus tour. "We're calling the buzzword the Save America Tour because I think Biden will have a hard time saying no to Bernie Sanders and AOC if the Democrats have the control of the Senate. If the Republicans keep it then he's a former senator, he knows how to negotiate. We'll get more reasonable legislation out of it."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said he will serve as a buffer against the more radical wings of the Democratic Party even if Democrats do sweep the Georgia races and gain control of the Senate. He's said in no uncertain terms that he will oppose ending the legislative filibuster and packing the Supreme Court, things many Democrats have called for, leading to a very public feud with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who is also known by her initials, AOC.
But McIntosh told Fox News he does not have faith in Manchin to block some of the Democratic priorities that Republicans most deplore.
The bus being used for the Keep America America Action Fund's bus tour in Georgia. Keep America America Action Fund is just one of many groups on both sides hitting the pavement in the Peach State. (Keep America America Action Fund)
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"You've got to worry about it, right, because if he's the sole guy stopping them, the pressure on him from his friends and former allies is going to be enormous," McIntosh said. "So I think a much better stopgap would be to keep the Republican majority in both of these races."
The Save America Tour started last Friday and has events planned at least through Dec. 20. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rick Scott, R-Fla, and Reps.-elect Burgess Owens, R-Utah, and Lauren Bobert, R-Colo., are among the high-profile names who will join the bus tour.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Sen. Steve Daines, R.-Mont., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and others joined the bus tour Saturday when it hosted a free concert with "God Bless the U.S.A." singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood.
McIntosh said the bus tour and its rallies are specifically aimed at juicing GOP turnout for Perdue and Loeffler.
"We're spending over 10 million on really activities aimed at getting out the vote for Republicans, including television ads, media, mail, social pressure ads and texts that remind people that whether they vote or not will be known by their neighbors," McIntosh said. "I'm telling folks, win it for the Gipper, meaning Donald Trump. And win it to save America, save everything the Republicans believe in."
THIS IS HOW MUCH MONEY'S BEING SPENT SO FAR IN THE GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFF SHOWDOWNS
McIntosh said his group alone is deploying 250 door-knockers -- but they are far from alone in flooding the state with volunteers to pound the pavement.
Joan Reynolds, the chair of the Mighty Alabama Strike Force, which sends volunteers from Alabama to swing states to knock on Republican voters' doors, said their singular goal is to make as many GOP voter contacts as possible.
"We don't go in to register voters or to convince anybody there, we just want to be sure that we get our people out to vote," Reynolds told Fox News in an interview. There are similar GOP "strike force" groups in many other states around the country. Reynolds' Alabama group in the presidential election worked in Florida to support Trump.
She said volunteers are required to walk at least 3 or four 4 per day but usually walk much farther than that. Reynolds estimated that between 100 and 150 people from the strike force have already visited Alabama with more to come. She estimated the potential total number of people her group would bring to Georgia will be between 300 and 400.
"I can tell you people don't answer their phones anymore. And a lot of times everything that they see is either on Twitter or Facebook or television. And we just feel like this is the only way that we can get directly to the voter to give them our message," Reynolds said of the in-person door knocking. "So it's probably the hardest. But it's also the most productive."
A bevy of other conservative groups from Americans for Prosperity to Tea Party Patriots to Susan B. Anthony List and more are on the ground in Georgia as well to back Loeffler and Perdue.
Ads from both sides have also been pouring in for the Georgia races, with The Lincoln Project, a supposedly GOP group that runs ads against Republicans, taunting Perdue over an alleged lack of public appearances recently. Meanwhile, Save the U.S. Senate PAC, which is run by two aides to Donald Trump Jr., has been hitting the Georgia airwaves with six-figure ad buys featuring the president's son.
A similarly named Democratic PAC, called Save Our Senate PAC, meanwhile, is sending its own volunteers to pound doors in Georgia.
"The choice between the candidates could not be starker," it says on its website. "The stakes could not be higher or more consequential. That's why the Save Our Senate (SOS) PAC is launching to defeat corrupt Republicans David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler. They will undoubtedly be part of Mitch McConnell’s obstructionist and toxic agenda."
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SOS is crowdfunding for PPE and coronavirus testing for its door-knockers and is focused on getting "low propensity voters from diverse and underserved communities" for Warnock and Ossoff.
"We’re going to have to do door knocking now,” Nabilah Islam, who created the SOS PAC, told the Wall Street Journal. Democrats, amid the pandemic, have been reluctant to engage in in-person activism officially affiliated with campaigns. “We’ve realized that we can’t forgo direct voter contact."
If Democrats win both of the Georgia races, they will bring the U.S. Senate to a 50-50 tie, giving Democrats a defacto majority because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could break tie votes. If Republicans win even one of the Georgia races they will be able to hold onto their Senate majority, which will effectively be a veto over much of the Biden agenda.
The Senate runoffs could be some of the most expensive two months of nonpresidential politics in American history. According to AdImpact, a top national ad tracking firm formerly known as Advertising Analytics, spending in the Georgia races has already topped $400 million. It is widely expected to crest at least $500 million before the Jan. 5 runoff election day.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Evie Fordham contributed to this report.
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