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A new, upbeat ad is airing in Georgia thanking Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock for being a progressive that Biden can count on. But there’s a twist — Republicans are behind it.
“Raphael Warnock has Joe Biden’s back. While other Democrats may abandon the president, Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about Warnock,” the ad’s narrator tells viewers, tying Warnock to Biden’s low approval numbers and low popularity.
The narrator adds, "Warnock has stood with Biden on refocusing our military on white supremacy, transgender rights or critical race theory."
The group behind the ad, Our American Century, is a conservative group that has previously supported former President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.
It has many donors, but one of the biggest ones is Trump's Saving America PAC, a group he created after the 2020 election.
There’s not a lot of money behind this ad — the group has only booked about $100,000 so far — but we’ll be watching to see if any other groups or candidates take on the same kind of messaging campaign moving forward.
The messaging is reminiscent of ads run by the Democratic Governor's Association this cycle, where ads took a negative tone against Republican primary candidates, but were actually boosting those candidates' conservative credentials to Republican voters.
Here, seemingly uplifting Warnock's liberal platform can turn him off to swing and independent voters.