Kingston launches first statewide ad of Georgia Senate race

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) is using his fundraising edge to launch the first statewide ad buy of Georgia’s Senate race, a positive biographical ad to introduce himself to voters.

{mosads}”In uncertain times, we need unfailing principles,” the ad’s narrator says over footage of Kingston driving.

“His parents were raised during the Depression. Living in Athens, they taught him the value of a dollar and the virtue of hard work. Those principles steer Jack Kingston,” the ad says. “Jack worked a the Port of Savannah, helped grow a business, married Libby and raised their children in the same church where they said ‘I do.’ Hard work, conservative values. It’s what drives America. It’s what drives Jack Kingston.”

Kingston’s campaign says the ad is airing statewide on both broadcast and cable, and has a mid-six figure buy behind it.

Kingston had $3.4 million in the bank as of the end of 2013, the most of any of the five Republicans running for retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s (R-Ga.) seat.

Polls show none of the Republicans have emerged from the pack. But only Kingston, self-funding businessman David Perdue (R) and potentially Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) appear to have the money to be able to air statewide ads in Georgia’s expensive media markets. Gingrey started out with a big warchest but has struggled in fundraising, while Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel (R) have posted weak fundraising quarters.

Democrats are bullish about the chances of former charity executive Michelle Nunn (D) in the general election.