Michelle Obama warns Republican wins ‘bad’ for Washington

First lady Michelle Obama is warning Democratic voters that Washington will “be even worse” if they let Republicans win in November.

“Instead of leaders coming together on behalf of hardworking families and finding consensus on the issues that matter most, we’ll just see more conflict and more obstruction,” Mrs. Obama said at a voter registration rally Monday night in Atlanta.

She said Republican victories in places like Georgia would result in “more lawsuits and talk about impeachment, more votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or even shut the government down — behavior that just wastes time and wastes taxpayer dollars.”

Mrs. Obama said that the political environment had become “so bad” that Republicans were “even trying to block the work that I do on childhood obesity. And that’s really saying something.”

“Frankly,” said Ms. Obama, “if we lose these midterm elections, it’s going to be a whole lot harder to finish what we started.”

The first lady implored supporters to turn out in November to elect Democrats Michelle Nunn to the U.S. Senate and Jason Carter as governor.

Ms. Nunn trails Republican David Perdue by 2.6 points, and Mr. Carter lags behind Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, by 2.8 points in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls in the state.

“If just 50 Democratic voters per precinct who didn’t vote in 2010 get out and vote this November — just 50 per precinct — then Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter will win,” Obama said. “Think about it.”

Mrs. Obama’s pitch could do more damage than good in Georgia, where President Obama remains very unpopular.

Mr. Perdue has made tying Ms. Nunn to the unpopular president a cornerstone of his campaign. He used Mrs. Obama’s visit to drive that point home.

“While Michelle Nunn is trying to distance herself from President Obama and Washington Democrats publicly, she clearly has no problem raising money from them directly on the taxpayers’ dime in order to deceive Georgians about her true allegiance to President Obama and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid,” a Perdue campaign spokeswoman told The Associated Press.