GOP doubts about Georgia and North Carolina have Republicans shifting focus in battle for Senate

Republican hopes of winning Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina have been fading, and the GOP is increasingly focused on playing defense elsewhere with five weeks until the midterm elections ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans once saw Georgia and North Carolina as promising pieces of their strategy to keep control of the Senate. But hopes of winning the two states have been fading, and the GOP is increasingly focused on playing defense elsewhere with five weeks until the midterm elections.

Republicans haven’t abandoned the Southern battlegrounds, which President Donald Trump carried narrowly in 2024, though they are shifting greater resources to states they see as more competitive. The party now is spending heavily to defend reliably Republican Texas, and Trump is planning to campaign for the Republican incumbent in Ohio, both places the president won easily in 2024. Some Republicans also have become more vocal in their complaining that Trump has squandered an opportunity to more comfortably hold off Democrats this fall.

Among their grievances, they say the president failed to bring the unpopular war in Iran to a close, has dismissed the pinch of high fuel prices and engaged late in the midterm campaigns. And though Democrats must still win several seats Republicans hold to win back the majority, the GOP is looking more at protecting seats they already hold than picking up Georgia, and they are signaling serious problems in North Carolina. “There is a Republican turnout problem due to the administration’s failure to address the economic concerns of voters,” North Carolina Republican strategist Paul Shoemaker said of the state’s U.S.

GOP Senate leaders look beyond Georgia Republican Senate campaign leaders are looking past Georgia businessman Mike Collins’ challenge of first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff to states they viewed as more competitive to focus future spending, according to two Republican Senate campaign sources familiar with Senate leadership’s thinking. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Ossoff has swamped the successful trucking company executive in fundraising. Collins has also struggled to broaden his support beyond Georgia’s Republican base. Despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s two-day campaign and fundraising trip to Georgia this month, some local party leaders were publicly pessimistic.

“He just doesn’t have what it takes to beat Ossoff,” said Tim Waters, Peach County Republican Party chair. “It’s hard enough trying to beat an incumbent, and you have the president of the sam… Senate race.GOP Senate leaders look beyond GeorgiaRepublican Senate campaign leaders are looking past Georgia businessman Mike Collins' challenge of first-term Democratic Sen.