ATLANTA — Jack Kingston and Karen Handel announced Wednesday that they are putting the criticism of recent months behind them and are now on the same side in working to defeat Michelle Nunn and take Republican control of the U.S. Senate.
Her endorsement came the same day that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it is airing television ads on his behalf featuring football legend Herschel Walker.
Kingston was not the only candidate claiming support from a former foe going into the July runoff.
Mike Buck announced that two of his former opponents, Alan Fort and Kira Willis, have endorsed him in the race for the Republican nomination for state superintendent of schools. Handel, who came in third behind Kingston and frontrunner David Perdue, said she had not known Kingston well before the campaign but had grown to admire him for his integrity and fighting spirit. Plus she was impressed that the First District that he has represented for 22 years in Congress turned out heavily to give him 74 percent of the May 20 vote — a margin most observers say cost Handel a spot in the runoff.
“That is one outstanding job-approval rating,” she said.
She laughed off critical comments she had made about Kingston during the primary about being well-intentioned but ineffective. Instead, she said it was more important that he had the political experience to start working the moment he is elected and that he is best able to deny Nunn, the Democratic nominee.
Kingston told reporters he doesn’t have a defined role for Handel in his campaign but that he wanted to tap her connections in North Georgia and gain tactical advice.
“The best thing in the world for Harry Reid, Michelle Nunn and Nancy Pelosi would be a divided conservative family,” Kingston said. “Karen and I aren’t going to let that happen.”
Perdue’s campaign tried to throw cold water on the truce between Kingston and Handel.
“David is an outsider with the right experience to help fix the problems the politicians created, and this just goes to show the clear choice he is giving the voters,” said Perdue spokesman Derrick Dickey. “If some folks like what is going on in Washington, they can vote for a 22-year congressman that will continue to deliver the same results. However, we believe that most Georgians are craving a real alternative to business as usual by the Washington insiders.”
Handel said although she campaigned against Kingston and the other two congressmen in the race as insiders, Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, she never described herself as an “outsider.” And she said she wasn’t bitter about a comment Perdue made early in the race regarding her dropping out of college. Instead, she said she was throwing her support to Kingston after being approached by him and Perdue because the congressman knows he can’t be “CEO of the other 99” members of the Senate — a reference to Perdue’s background heading major companies.
A day earlier, Kingston won the endorsement of a major tea party leader, Julianne Thompson. That balances the endorsement earlier this month of him by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which many tea party members consider responsible for much of the problems they see in the federal government.
The Chamber ran job-related ads for Kingston in the primary, but the current ads with the Heisman Trophy winner and former University of Georgia running back have a softer message.
“I’ve had the great honor representing our state, my home,” Walker says in the short ad. “I care deeply about Georgia’s future. That’s why I want my friend Jack Kingston to carry the ball for us in Washington.”
Buck had more than just two formal rivals endorsing him, too. He also announced the backing of state House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth. Coleman is a career educator like Buck, who is the State’s assistant superintendent now.
Buck and all three of his latest endorsers all support continuing the Georgia’s use of the multi-state Common Core school standards, which is a major difference between him and Richard Woods, the other candidate in the GOP runoff.
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