Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., released two ads in a $1 million buy this week portraying her Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock as a “radical” ahead of one of the state’s two January runoffs.
Warnock and Loeffler received 32% and 25% of the vote, respectively, in the Nov. 3 election in a race that also included Republican Rep. Doug Collins and several other candidates. To avoid a runoff, Senate candidates in the state must win an outright majority.
“This is America,” a narrator says in the first ad that shows schoolchildren reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, “but will it still be if the radical left controls the Senate?”
The ad goes on to allege that Warnock, who is pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, called police “thugs,” hosted a rally for former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and praised Marxism in writings.
Warnock’s staff have said he was a junior staffer when Castro came to his New York church in 1995 and the rally wasn't his decision, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The second Loeffler ad calls Warnock a “radical’s radical” over his past support of the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose association with former President Obama caused a controversy during Obama's first run for the White House in 2008.
"I know Rev. Wright," Warnock told MSNBC. "I'm not an anti-Semite. I've never defended anti-Semitic comments from anyone and Kelly Loeffler knows better," he added, before accusing her of "division and distraction."
Loeffler, on Monday, referenced how Warnock defended Wright after his infamous "God damn America" sermon.
A spokesman for the Democrat has called the ads "misleading," Reuters reported.
Warnock was largely able to avoid attacks during the race as Loeffler and Collins went after each other, the Journal-Constitution reported.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Jan. 5 runoff, along with a second Senate runoff between Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, has gained national attention because the results will decide which party controls the Senate.
Fox News' Sam Dorman contributed to this report