Both candidates in the hotly-contested race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District condemned an ad that claimed the “unhinged left” endorses attacks like the one that severely wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported an ad from a group called the Principled Leadership PAC surfaced Sunday, just two days before the vote, tying progressives to the attack in northern Virginia that left four people shot, two others injured and the shooter dead.
“Now the unhinged left is endorsing and applauding shooting Republicans. When will it stop?” the ad states. “It won’t if Jon Ossoff wins on Tuesday, because the same unhinged leftists cheering last week’s shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff. And if he wins, they win.”
Scalise was shot through the pelvic region and remains in serious condition in a Washington, D.C. hospital.
That advertisement drew condemnations from Ossoff, the Democrat in the race, and Karen Handel, his Republican opponent.
“The man is fighting for his life,” Ossoff said. “I think it’s disgraceful to politicize it, and I think Secretary Handel should call for it to come down.”
A spokeswoman for Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, told the paper the video is “disturbing and disgusting.”
“For any group to use the shootings this week for political or personal benefit is shameful,” spokeswoman Kate Constantini said. “This group should be ashamed.”
Ossoff and Handel are locked in a race to replace Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price in what’s become the most expensive House race in history.
The election is seen as a sort of referendum on the early days of the Trump administration. While the district has been red for decades, Ossoff has received huge backing in the election and the latest polls show him with a slight edge on Handel.
