The notion of a traditional Labor Day kickoff for general election politicking wilted in the summer heat this year as an onslaught of outside spending and negative attacks jolted Georgia.

Loosened restrictions on outside spending, combined with Georgia’s most competitive governor’s and U.S. Senate races in more than a decade, have brought an endless campaign season — deluging voters earlier than normal.

“My mind is so adamantly made up, so it’s just a waste of time at this point. It’s tiresome. And it gets annoying when the ads attack a candidate I’ve chosen — especially when I find them unfair,” said Jennifer Simmons, a 52-year-old Alpharetta accountant. “It just cements my opinion that much stronger, that I’ve made my choice.”

Simmons and those like her end up as collateral damage as the campaigns and their allied political action committees seek impressionable voters who are paying only passing attention to politics. The battles atop Georgia’s ticket have attracted national attention and money to an unprecedented degree this early.

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A Korean Air plane takes off from Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. The plane is chartered to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia. (Yonhap via AP)

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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