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Voters face election fatigue as Georgia's US Senate race goes into a runoff

By Brittany Edney
Published  November 9, 2022 10:01pm EST
2022 Midterm Elections
FOX 5 Atlanta

Ga. voters claim 'fatigue' ahead of runoff campaign ads

Some Georgia residents admit they're not exciting about the overflow of political ads to be expected ahead of the U.S. Senate runoff race.

ATLANTA - Georgia’s US Senate race turned out to be one of the nation’s costliest with both candidates raising more than $150 million in combined contributions. That is money raised before the recently announced runoff between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

The most recent campaign filings from the federal election commission show campaign contributions at just over $115 million for Warnock and nearly $37 million for Walker.

Nearly a dozen Georgia residents told FOX 5 that they are exhausted at the overflow of political advertisements.

Marketing Professor David Schweidel of Emory University's Goizueta Business School, says if Georgia once again ends up in control of deciding which party controls the Senate, then even more money and campaigning will start pouring. He predicts it will be a repeat of the 2020 runoff.

"We saw both parties trotting out every surrogate they had, to fly them down to Georgia, to be rallying up those bases. We saw a lot of advertising dollars not just on TV but also flooding the digital airwaves," said Schweidel.

He adds social media continues to provide a platform for politicians to engage with voters and is another way for candidates to connect with their base.

"Follower counts aren’t everything," said Schweidel. "They’re a vanity metric in many regards but what you have to keep in mind, it’s a way of engaging and reaching people. If they’re not following you, you’re not able to communicate with them directly."

Georgia State University Assistant Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis says voter fatigue could impact the runoff.

"It has just been a brutally exhausting campaign for a lot of Georgians,"said Kreis. "And I think there’s a lot of folks in Georgia who are looking forward to the campaign ending but I think it creates additional hurtles for both Walker and Warnock to get the people who came out to vote for them last night, continue to do so."

He says he believes base turnout could be fickle. "I think it’s going to be one that would be based on the character of the opponent and so I think you’re going to see a lot of mudslinging and I think it’ll take a negative turn and that type of advertisement is likely going to be more on TV more than social media," said Kreis.