“As people run away from Cawthorn, our job is to meet them,” she said, adding, “For those who don’t know what to think of a gay Christian pastor, it’s very clear to them that I’m being honest. with them from the beginning.”
In Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy, Mr. Chambers isn’t the villain the Democrats made national of Mrs. Greene. His campaign is based on his irreverent appeal: an outspoken black progressive voice willing to smoke weed in a commercial, burn a Confederate flag and racially accuse white school administrators for defending a school named after Robert E. Lee. .
He raised $800,000 in the first three months of the year from 18,500 donors. The median contribution was $41, many of those small-dollar donors youthful and excited, the campaign said.
Critics say such campaigns are more about building the brand of Democratic advisers than about playing a Senate seat. The man who ran Mr. Chambers, Erick Sanchez, helped lead Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign and also hawks “Fouch on the Couch” pillows from Dr. Anthony Fauci for $40 each.
But Randy Jones, one of Mr Chambers’ campaign managers, said the candidate should not be excluded. Mr. Chambers, he said, takes a page from Ms. Abrams, who nearly fueled Georgia’s voters of color, urban liberals and absent-minded rural Democrats four years ago, built a political organization and lined up for a rematch this year. with Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Mr. Jones led the campaign of another famous Democrat, Richard Ojeda of West Virginia, whose House campaign in 2018 was instructive in other ways. Mr. Ojeda, a dirty Bronze Star winner, tried to restore his party’s image in his emerging Republican stronghold as more muscular and working-class. He raised nearly $3 million and then lost nearly 13 percentage points.