GOP official suggests shooting will 'win this election for us' in Georgia as ad links Democratic candidate to violence
"I think the shooting is going to win this election for us," 11th District GOP party chairman Brad Carver said Saturday, according to The Washington Post.
"Because moderates and independents in this district are tired of left-wing extremism. I get that there's extremists on both sides, but we are not seeing them. We're seeing absolute resistance to everything this president does. Moderates and independents out there want to give him a chance. Democrats have never given this president a chance."
Carver was referring to Tuesday's special election in Georgia's sixth congressional district, the most expensive House race in recent history, and the subject of an intense scrutiny over questions about whether Democrats can win in moderate Republican districts. Handel is running against Jon Ossoff, the young Democratic candidate for the congressional seat that was vacated by Tom Price when President Donald Trump asked him to serve in his administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Though voters in the district have been bombarded by ads and campaigning for months, last week's shooting cast a dark cloud over the race at the last minute.
Carver's comments came days after Principled PAC, which has been disavowed by some on the right, aired an advertisement on Fox News that claimed the "same unhinged leftists cheering last week's shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff."
Both Ossoff's campaign and Handel's disavowed the ad.