Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is taking unprecedented action to attempt to help GOP nominee Herschel Walker win the December runoff for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
Politico's Alex Isenstadt reports McConnell is partnering with Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to help turnout out the vote for the former NFL running back.
"Kemp is loaning his get-out-the-vote machine to the Senate GOP’s voter turnout efforts, giving the party entrée to a political team that is increasingly viewed as one of the GOP’s most formidable state operations," Politico reported.
Walker is challenging Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is currently leading in the vote count.
"Under an agreement that was finalized Thursday, Kemp will transfer his door-knocking, data analytics, phone-banking and micro-targeting program to the Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned super PAC that is bolstering Walker," Politico reported. "The super PAC will provide the funding for the $2 million-plus effort, which will be run by Kemp’s senior advisers and staffed by more than 100 field workers."
Politico said it's the first time McConnell has funded a "get out the vote" (GOTV) effort.
During the Senate runoffs following the 2020 elections, Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about election fraud were widely seen as depressing GOP turnout, resulting in the loss of the seats held by Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffer, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Over 752,000 Georgia voters who cast ballots in the presidential election didn’t show up again for the runoffs just two months later," the newspaper reported. "More than half of the no-shows were white, and many lived in rural areas, constituencies that lean toward Republican candidates. Trump’s message that the election was stolen discouraged voters such as Craig Roland, a 61-year-old Rome resident. Roland said he didn’t believe his vote would count."
Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law told Politico, “Gov. Kemp wrote the playbook for how to win big in Georgia, and we are thrilled to partner with his top-notch team to elect Herschel Walker to the Senate."
Meanwhile, Trump is again pushing his conspiracy theories about election fraud in multiple states, but on Thursday sought to tamp down concerns about his instability.
"For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media that I am angry about the midterms, don’t believe it," Trump posted to Truth Social.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump lashes out at Pennsylvania
"I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn’t the one running!), and am very busy looking into the future," Trump said. "Remember, I am a 'stable genius.'”
