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Georgia GOP rattled as party pollster Frank Luntz cites billboards predicting worse time ahead for Republicans

Luntz forecasts that not only will the Republicans lose the Senate runoff elections in Peach State but they will also lose the plot to challenge Joe Biden's win in Congress

The Republican Party has failed to keep the presidency and also could not flip the House in the 2020 election. Their sole hope about resisting the Democrats’ juggernaut now lies in maintaining control of the Senate. But for that to be a reality, the GOP needs to win both the Senate runoff elections in Georgia that took place on Tuesday, January 5. But the Republicans didn’t see a smooth build-up to the Georgia polls as Trump and his loyalists kept on creating disruptions and tended to belittle the twin contests while backing their claims that the presidential election was stolen in a number of battleground states, including the Peach State.

The chaos ahead of the runoff elections could eventually make the GOP pay for it and party pollster Frank Luntz warned the party that it was going to be a difficult 48 hours for them – first from the Georgia election and second from the party’s divided initiative to challenge Joe Biden’s win in the Congress on Wednesday, January 6. The GOP has been left divided over the plan to contest the Electoral College votes affirming Biden win and some of the president’s closest allies have planned to disrupt the congressional counting of the votes. Trump has encouraged his in-Congress supporters to fight for his case while asking his supporters on the streets to assemble in Washington DC on Wednesday to challenge the election outcome. 

Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, January 5, Luntz said he believed that the Democrats would not only have their win in the 2020 presidential election affirmed but also emerge victorious in the Georgia polls. "The Democrats are more energized, the Democrats are much more united," the 58-year-old political pundit said. 

Luntz, who in August last year expressed his disappointment over the GOP’s defining principles saying the party had no defining philosophy, lashed out at Trump saying the latter was selfish in speaking about his own election at the Georgia rally on Monday, January 4, and not encouraging the Republican voters to go out to vote and help the party’s Senator candidates win. Trump recently even called Georgia polls illegal and invalid because of 'hasty' changes made to the “unconstitutional” voting process. 

Luntz slams Trump for his selfish role

“Donald Trump, in his first few seconds, when he came to speak to his rally, did not talk about the two Senate candidates, he spoke about his own being robbed," Luntz said. "He told them that he won in a landslide! And all this does is depress Republican turnout!”

He also said that he saw several billboards put up in pro-GOP zones in Georgia asking the voters not to back either of the two Republican candidates -- David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler -- alleging that the duo did not do enough to overturn the presidential election results in favor of Trump. One of the president’s staunchest allies -- Lin Wood -- an Atlanta-based controversial lawyer, was among those who asked the GOP supporters to stay away from the crucial election and even suggested arrest of both Perdue and Loeffler accusing them of voter fraud. 

The pollster then said the bottom line is that “the next 48 hours are going to be among the worst” for the Republican Party. 

Georgia GOP asks supporters not to believe billboards

That the Georgia Republican Party was worried over the billboards became evident when the party’s state Chair David Shafer tweeted to ask the supporters to ignore them and vote for the GOP senator candidates. His tweet was in response to a post from Really American PAC, a liberal political action body which has tried to capitalize on the anger and confusion among the GOP and Trump supporters over Tuesday’s elections. 

“I passed a number of billboards in gop strongholds saying don’t vote for the republicans they didn’t do enough for trump” thank you to everyone who made it possible to put up over 100 of these across Georgia!” Really American’s tweet said which also a gave link to Luntz’s interview to CNBC. 

Raw Story quoted Justin Horwitz, founder and director of Really American, as saying: “These billboards are true and accurate. Clearly, they speak for themselves, but if you need more information, I have heard objections from GOP leaders about how [little] Perdue and Loeffler did to assist Donald Trump in his goal of overturning Georgia's 16 electoral votes declared for Biden.”

Raw Story reported that the PAC’s initial purchase of 12 billboards was condemned by Georgia GOP but it did not stop it from having 100 billboards across the Peach State. “We focused on areas with big Trump support,” Horwitz said, adding: “They are the ones who need to know Loeffler and Perdue abandoned Donald Trump and abandoned the GOP voters of Georgia.”

Meanwhile, reports said Raphael Warnock won the contest against Loeffler, the race between Perdue and Jon Ossoff was too close for a call. Luntz's predictions were not too off the target.