Most of the losers in Georgia’s just-completed Republican primary runoffs had at least one thing in common: connections to Congress at a time when the public has an extremely low opinion of that legislative body.
Jack Kingston lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat Tuesday after serving 22 years in the U.S. House. Bob Barr, who served four terms in the House, failed to make a political comeback in Georgia’s 11th Congressional District. And Mike Collins, the son of former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, fell short in his campaign for the state’s 10th District House seat.
All of their opponents campaigned as outsiders who would bring fresh ideas to Congress. For example, during campaign stops, Kingston’s opponent — former Dollar General CEO David Perdue — recounted the story of an elderly voter who told him she would support him after hearing he had never been elected to public office.
“You know, people are very frustrated with Washington, D.C., and I think that was a big hurdle,” Kingston said after his defeat Tuesday. “And my opponent capitalized on that — as he should.”
This month’s Gallup poll shows 80 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job, while just 15 percent approve. Congress’ approval rating hasn’t topped 20 percent since October of 2012.
Larry Sabato, who directs the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, pointed to other factors that could have influenced the outcome of Georgia’s GOP runoffs.
“I don’t think having an association with Congress was the fundamental reason why any of them lost, but it didn’t help them either… for lots of reasons,” Sabato said of Barr, Collins and Kingston. “The Republicans in the tea party wing tend to be anti-establishment. They are very unhappy with Congress.”
Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, offered his take on Kingston’s defeat.
“I have a feeling,” he said, “that some Republican voters may have resented kind of being told by almost the entire establishment in the state — the party leadership and the chamber of commerce — that Jack Kingston is going to be your Senate candidate.”
In the Republican runoff for Georgia’s 11th District House seat, former state Sen. Barry Loudermilk described Barr as a “Washington insider” who flip-flopped on public policy issues, a charge Barr denied.
“People are looking for a new, fresh message, not just the same old, same old we are having from Washington,” Loudermilk said by telephone Wednesday as he prepared to clean up his campaign signs.
Barr repeatedly campaigned on his congressional experience, saying this is no time to send a “rookie” to Washington. On Wednesday, Barr, who ran unsuccessfully for president under the Libertarian banner in 2008, said candidates with connections to Congress “certainly run the risk of being painted with the same anti-Washington brush.”
“We do know that [Congress’] approval ratings are extremely low these days,” Barr said.
And in the GOP runoff for Georgia’s 10th District House seat, Jody Hice, a conservative radio talk show host with tea party support, blasted the congressional voting record of Collins’ father, former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins. Hice called the younger Collins “a sequel that is a nightmare.” Collins, a trucking company executive who vigorously defended his father on the campaign trail, pointed out that his dad left Congress many years ago. Still, Hice continued to connect Collins to his father in the days leading up to the runoff.
“Our opponent — they painted it that way,” Collins said. “It’s a tough loss, man.”
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