DNC ‘bullish’ on winning Georgia’s Senate races

The Democratic Party now says it is “bullish” on Georgia and eyeing a pickup of Senate seats in a state where they haven’t won a statewide election in more than a decade.

Georgia is now included on the Democratic National Committee’s “Battleground Build Up 2020,” which identified the Peach State as a red state priority, DNC Chairman Tom Perez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.

“We have two senate pickup opportunities there, we’ve got great candidates — we have so much progress than has been made there,” Mr. Perez said. “I am bullish. Our field continues to expand as Democrats, and our most recent battleground build-up reflects the fact that there are opportunities everywhere: Texas, Ohio, Georgia and the like. And we’re going to fight everywhere.”

Georgia voters will choose both of its senators this November in an election that will have President Trump seeking reelection at the top of the ticket.

In one race, Georgia’s Republican Sen. David Perdue is seeking a second term and, in the other, a jungle primary will be held to choose who will finish up the term of Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, who retired unexpectedly last year due to health.

Mr. Perez’s comments indicate the party is prepared to spend more money and resources there than it might have been expected to. In 2018, the party made a push in the gubernatorial contest, and the loser in that race, Democrat Stacey Abrams, has continued to denounce the results with unsubstantiated accusations of voter suppression.

Mr. Perez echoed those claims, saying that “but for voter suppression, Stacy Abrams would be Governor Abrams.”

In 2017, a special House election for the 6th Congressional District, Democrat Jon Ossoff shattered fundraising records with a torrent of out-of-state money but lost in a runoff.

All those defeats were learning lessons and steps toward an ultimate victory, Mr. Perez said.

“In the past — and this is a shame on us moment - we were sprinters, we weren’t marathon runners,” he was quoted as saying. “We’d go in for the two-month sprint. That’s mobilizing. We need to organize — that’s the difference.”

In this year’s special election, both parties are facing divisions in their organizing efforts.

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a successful businesswoman appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to replace Mr. Isakson, has already pledged to spend at least $20 million of her fortune in her election bid which the establishment GOP has endorsed.

Against the party’s wishes, however, Republican Rep. Doug Collins, one of President Trump’s staunchest allies during the impeachment proceedings and Mr. Trump’s favorite to succeed Mr. Isakson, announced he will seek the seat, too.

Something similar happened recently on the Democratic side, where former U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver said he is running for senate. Democratic leaders had hoped to dissuade Mr. Tarver from his bid and instead unify behind Rev. Raphael Warnock, who stands in some black minds as the spiritual heir to Dr. Martin Luther King through his post as head of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Mr. Perez avoided wading into that fight.

“It’s not my place to tell any candidates what to do,” he told the paper. “They’ll have to make those assessments and I’m sure they will.”