WASHINGTON — For prominent Democrats around the country, the message to Georgia voters about January’s runoff elections couldn’t be more clear: Voting for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will keep Mitch McConnell from running the U.S. Senate.
But the candidates themselves have embraced a more balanced approach, forming most of their pitches around policy proposals and character attacks on their GOP opponents without focusing solely on villainizing the Republican leader from Kentucky.
The strategic divide reveals a broader debate now taking place inside the Democratic Party that revolves around McConnell and how the party should campaign in an era when Donald Trump is no longer president — one certain to simmer long after the Georgia races end and Joe Biden assumes office.
