Jason Carter is plastering the airwaves with an optimistic closing TV ad that contrasts with the negative spots that he's used to bruise Gov. Nathan Deal in the final leg of the race for governor.
The ad shows the smiling 39-year-old Atlanta state senator greeting voters and vowing to bring a new direction to Georgia. "Georgia will be leading the way again," it says.
It came as he brought his campaign to the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where pastor Raphael Warnock called him his "brother from another mother." The AJC's Jeremy Redmon was there as Carter told dozens of mostly black supporters that he would make sure they had a seat at the table.
“Georgia is ready for a governor that is looking for answers for everyone,” Carter told the crowd gathered outside the church, the spiritual home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
He added that if he wins on Nov. 4, “when you show up at the governor's office, they are not going to tell you to go to the back door. They are going to tell you to come in the front door and talk about the things that matter to people.”
The Democrat's campaign is hoping to push African-American turnout past 30 percent, and Carter hopes his support for expanding Medicaid - which would expand healthcare coverage to an estimated 650,000 people - resonates.
“There is $30 billion of our money that is in Washington and the governor says we don’t want it,” Carter told the crowd. “The governor says Washington should keep it. That’s not Democratic or Republican or anything else. Nobody wants the federal government to keep our money.”
The governor uses the Affordable Care Act to rev up his base, too. He has steadfastly opposed expanding the program, saying it would be far too costly in the long run. He tells campaign crowds on his bus tour that Carter would be forced to raise taxes to pay for the expansion, though the Democrat has vowed he wouldn't do so.
Carter's ad is to run in the all-important metro Atlanta market and others across the state through Tuesday.
Here's the text:
Georgia is ready to invest in its future, to protect its education system every year.
Georgia is ready to make sure that we're not just letting special interests run our government.
Georgia is ready to have a strong middle class.
If we can harness that energy that we felt all across this state — from Dalton to Brunswick to Savannah to Columbus and everywhere in between — we will have that bright future.
Georgia will be leading the way again.
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