Iran war emerges as pocketbook issue in U.S. Senate race

Today’s newsletter highlights:

• Georgia’s voter registration deadline arrives.
• National Democratic group boosts support for Tanya Miller.
• Mother demands Rick Jackson stop using slain daughter’s image in mailers.

Campaign fault line

The war in Iran is emerging as a late-breaking fault line in Senate races across the country.

Now Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff is turning up the pressure on Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins over a conflict that many increasingly see as a pocketbook issue.

At a weekend event in Duluth, Ossoff again called Collins the “bigot congressman” and challenged him to break with President Donald Trump and demand an end to the war.

“Let me be very clear about this, that today I am challenging Mike Collins to see if, just for once in his life, he can do the right thing and stand up to Donald Trump,” Ossoff said. “I am challenging Mike Collins to join me in demanding an end to this war.”

There’s a reason Ossoff is leaning in. The same issue is rippling through other Senate battlegrounds. Republican nominees Mike Rogers in Michigan and Ashley Hinson in Iowa have both called for a swift end to the war, tying it to rising fuel and everyday costs.

But Collins has remained firmly behind Trump. At a VFW hall in Cobb County in August, he told us he trusted the administration’s approach. And he said that Trump “has the right pulse on this.”

“At the end of the day, he’ll make sure that we’re victorious in what we’re doing,” Collins said.

But the political fallout is increasingly playing out closer to home.

As the candidates for governor clash over ways to lower gas prices, Ossoff sees an opening to argue that Collins’ support for Trump’s approach is taking a toll on Georgians’ wallets.

Things to know

Good morning! The midterms are in 29 days. Today is the last day to register to vote. Early voting starts next week on Oct. 13. Here are three things to know for today:

• Democratic nominee for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board on Friday. She discussed casinos, 2020 unrest and Joe Biden, among other topics, Greg Bluestein reports.
• Medical providers from all over rural Georgia are reporting new strain since the beginning of the year — the result of major policy changes in Washington that are testing the strength of the country’s safety net programs, Tamar Hallerman reports.
• More than 147,000 migrants in recent years indicated they were headed to Georgia when processed by federal authorities at the southern border and released into the U.S., Lautaro Grinspan reports.

Mailer controversy

The mother of the 8-year-old girl who was killed during unrest in Atlanta in 2020, is demanding that Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson stop using her daughter’s image in campaign mailers.

“My daughter is not a political tool or talking point, a campaign talking point,” Charmaine Turner told WSB-TV, adding that she never gave permission for the campaign to use Secoriea Turner’s photo or name.

Jackson’s campaign said the family is “one of the major reasons why Rick is running for governor.”

Bottoms’ campaign accused Jackson of exploiting the family’s pain for “political purposes.”

Turner’s attorney, Mawuli Davis, insists there are no political motivations behind their demand. He noted to WSB that Turner is also suing Bottoms and the city of Atlanta over the handling of the unrest surrounding her daughter’s 2020 killing.

Today’s the day

We’ve been counting down the days to the voter registration deadline. Today, the countdown reaches zero. The deadline is here.

Are you registered? You can find out by visiting the My Voter Page run by the secretary of state’s office. Just type in your first initial, last name, county where you live and your birthday. The computer will do the rest.

Need to register? You can do that online, too. Visit the secretary of state’s Online Voter Registration page. There’s a giant button on the page that says “register now.” You can’t miss it.

Early voting starts a week from tomorrow (Oct. 13). But absentee ballots will be mailed starting today. Want an absentee ballot? The secretary of state has a website for that, too.

More for Miller

The Democratic Attorneys General Association’s political arm is putting more money into backing state Rep. Tanya Miller, the party’s candidate for attorney general.

The money brings DAGA’s total investment the race to over $2 million. DAGA President Sean Rankin said more is on the way.

“She is the leader Georgians deserve and will keep families and communities safe,” he said in a news release. “We will continue to work with Miller and her team down the stretch to flip this seat.”

The new spending coincides with the launch of Miller’s first television campaign ad, which highlights her tenure as an assistant district attorney in Fulton County.

In the ad, she describes herself as the “only prosecutor in this race” and shows a clip of Republican opponent Brian Strickland saying he does not have any background prosecuting criminal cases. Strickland said his experience as chair of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee means that he helped write many of the laws the attorney general would enforce.

Listen up

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell examine Jackson’s strategy of spending heavily on ads but giving few interviews while Collins is attacking Ossoff over makeup and spending.

You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.

Keep up

Remember when former Secretary of State Cathy Cox and former state Rep. Scot Turner joined the “Politically Georgia” podcast to talk about their work with Keep Our Republic? The group is taking that effort on the road this week.

Keep Our Republic is hosting a pair of “community conversations” in Columbus and Savannah designed to give voters and journalists a chance to question local election officials directly about voting procedures, ballot counting and the security measures meant to ensure an accurate result.