WASHINGTON — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is teaming up with a political action committee working to elect Republican women to help Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia runoff election.
Haley is the face of Winning for Women’s new digital campaign, which began on Sunday with a slate of ads promoting Loeffler’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate and criticizing her Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock.
The PAC made a mid-six-figure investment for ads that boost Loeffler as a “businesswoman who has created jobs” and is “fighting for small businesses and against a socialist agenda” to female voters in the state.
“Kelly Loeffler will fight to bring Georgia values to Washington,” said Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in a statement. “Her opponent Raphael Warnock is a radical liberal who supports socialism, disrespects our men and women in uniform, and would raise taxes on hardworking American families. I’m proud to support proven leaders like Senator Loeffler who are standing up to protect our American freedoms.”
Underscoring attacks that Loeffler has bombarded Warnock with over the course of the special election, Haley takes aim in the advertisements at the “defund the police” movement and knocks Warnock, a pastor, for saying from the pulpit that “nobody can serve God and the military.”
The ads tie Warnock’s candidacy to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, encouraging Georgia voters to cast a ballot for Loeffler in the Jan. 5 runoff election to prevent Democrats from gaining control of the Senate.
Democrat Jon Ossoff is also challenging incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in a Senate race in Georgia that went into overtime. Loeffler and Warnock are competing to fill the last two years of a former Republican senator’s term. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to fill the Senate seat last December until an election could be held.
Loeffler would be the first woman elected to the Senate from Georgia if she wins the special election. Haley campaigned for Loeffler and Perdue in person on Sunday.
“We need more strong female leaders like Senator Loeffler in Washington, and WFW Action Fund is proud to team up with Ambassador Haley to ensure Georgians send her back to the Senate,” said Micah Yousefi, the political director of the organization’s action fund, in a statement.
The senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Warnock would be the first African American senator from Georgia.
At a rally on Monday afternoon in Columbus, where Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was the headliner, Warnock responded to criticisms of his sermons, accusing Loeffler of trying to reduce the race to “empty schoolyard insults” in lieu of debating the issues.
“This is serious business and she’s busy calling me names,” Warnock said. “That’s all right. As we say in the South, bless her heart.”
