Nervous about a 2026 blue wave, GOP deploys desperate attack ad
The Senate GOP’s top outside political operation is gearing up to launch its first salvo of the midterms with a new ad targeting Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia—kicking off what’s expected to be a relentless campaign.
According to Axios, the seven-figure ad blitz from One Nation, the issue advocacy arm of the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, will begin airing Saturday. It will run during marquee sporting events like the Final Four men’s and women’s basketball games, the Masters Tournament, and Atlanta Braves broadcasts.
True to form, Republicans are leaning on their same old tired anti-trans rhetoric.
“Man-to-man defense isn’t woke enough for Ossoff. He’s for they/them,” one ad sneers.
Though it’s still early in the midterm cycle, Republicans are clearly nervous about potential a blue wave (and for good reason), and they’re pulling out all the stops in hope of clinging to their slim Senate majority.
Theoretically, the 2026 midterms should favor Democrats—despite three Senate retirements, they’re poised to reclaim the House. But the Senate map is trickier. Ossoff’s seat, in particular, is one of the toughest to defend, with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report already calling it a “toss-up.”
Oddly, no Republican has yet stepped forward to run against Ossoff. While a few names are floating around, many within the party are holding out hope that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will enter the race. A source familiar with Kemp’s thinking told Axios he’s “still considering it.”
Given the current political climate, it’s a fair question whether Kemp—who’s term-limited and can’t run for reelection in 2026—wants to risk his political future by jumping into a cycle where Republicans are almost guaranteed to flop. President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular, the GOP brand isn’t faring much better, and there’s little reason to believe that will soon change.
Then again, some members of the GOP with less to lose might not be so hesitant. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s loudest cheerleaders in Congress, has already left the door open to a potential Senate or gubernatorial run in 2026.
What’s perhaps most revealing about the GOP’s early offensive against Ossoff is that, with no declared candidate and a party scrambling to defend Trump’s disastrous tariffs, Republicans don’t seem to have much to run on—other than attacking transgender people. Though, that’s less of a strategy than it is a confession: They’re betting voters will be more outraged by culture war nonsense than by policies that are actively draining their wallets.
That’s a risky bet.
To be fair, polls show a rightward shift on trans issues among adults—including some Democrats—and Axios suggests that this sentiment could be more pronounced in a red-leaning state like Georgia. One Nation even shared internal polling claiming that 79% of Georgia’s registered voters support banning “biological males” from women’s sports.
But Ossoff isn’t taking the bait. In fact, it looks like his reelection strategy is already locked in: go on the offensive and hammer Trump at every turn.
“American parents don’t need federal bureaucrats confirming our children’s genitalia. Athletic associations and local school districts can ensure fair, safe competition in childhood athletics,” a spokesperson for Ossoff told Axios.
Other Democrats would do well to take note. The lesson from 2024 isn’t that the party should culturally drift rightward—it’s that it doesn’t need to. With real ammunition on the economy, health care, and Social Security, there’s no need to mimic GOP cruelty to be competitive.