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Republican attorney general candidates are betting that crime, border security and public safety will drive voters to the polls in November as they position themselves as frontline fighters against Democratic policies on immigration and law enforcement.
The Republican Attorneys General Association and its affiliated groups are launching an aggressive $11 million television offensive across key battleground states this fall, with initial ad purchases targeting attorney general races in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia and Kansas.
“I think we have learned that being aggressive is a good thing,” RAGA Chairman Austin Knudsen, who also serves as Montana attorney general, told Fox News Digital. “Being aggressive works.”
Republicans say the effort reflects a broader push to put Democrats on defense over crime and public safety issues in some of the country’s most competitive statewide contests.
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“I don’t think there’s any question that the winning message for AG races around the country in 2026 is public safety,” Knudsen said. “Americans care about public safety, they care about law enforcement, they care about border security.”
Knudsen argued attorney general races have become increasingly nationalized because they can quickly challenge federal policies through lawsuits and multistate legal coalitions.
Republican attorneys general scored major victories against the Biden administration, including a successful challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that ended with the Supreme Court striking down the program in Biden v. Nebraska. GOP attorney general coalitions also sued to block the administration’s revised SAVE repayment plan, winning court orders delaying parts of the program.
Republican-led states also challenged Biden administration efforts to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity, turning attorney general offices into a major front in the nation’s culture wars.
“Congress talks. Attorneys generals act,” Knudsen said. “When we see something bad coming out of Washington, D.C., we can quickly mobilize. We can file lawsuits.”
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The ad reservations build on a broader Republican expansion effort already underway. Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird’s campaign has already reserved more than $2 million in fall television advertising, while RAGA says it raised a record $29.3 million across affiliated entities in 2025.
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said Republicans intend to capitalize on what they view as voter frustration over progressive criminal justice policies pushed by Democrats in battleground states.
“RAGA has a good map in 2026 and will be on offense because the reality is voters prioritize public safety and prefer Republican AGs who fight crime and win at the courthouse over Democrat AGs who pander to criminals with cashless bail idiocracy,” Piper said in a statement.
“These early TV reservations and direct candidate investments are merely a down payment on the resources RAGA will marshal this fall,” Piper added. “Democrats should understand that Republican AGs are not playing defense. We are taking the fight directly to them.”
The GOP is making Michigan a centerpiece of that argument.
Democrats there nominated Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, whose office became the first in Michigan to stop seeking cash bail and announced it would no longer prosecute certain low-level drug offenses.
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Michigan Republican attorney general candidate Doug Lloyd, the longtime Eaton County prosecutor, told Fox News Digital he believes public safety concerns cut across party lines in the battleground state.
“People want to feel safe in their communities, and they’re not feeling that safe right now,” Lloyd said. “That’s an 80-20 issue.”
Lloyd also accused Democratic prosecutors of selectively refusing to enforce laws, an issue Republicans increasingly plan to elevate nationally.
“I believe that when you start making that statement that ‘I refuse to enforce the laws that our legislature has created and which are constitutional’, then you’re on the road to anarchy,” Lloyd told Fox News Digital. “We’ve seen how that’s gone for the last eight years and I believe that our citizens are actually tired of it.”
In Georgia, Republicans are targeting Democratic attorney general nominee Tanya Miller over her vote against HB 1105, a post-Laken Riley immigration enforcement law requiring local officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how aggressively voters want attorneys general to challenge Democratic policies in court.
“We’ve seen the fentanyl, cartel fentanyl and methamphetamine flood in from the southern border during Joe Biden and flood every state,” Knudsen said.
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Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how aggressively voters want attorneys general to confront Democratic policies in court.
“People have figured out that attorney general’s races matter, I think we’ve gotten a lot more attention because of what we’ve been able to do,” Knudsen said. “As attorneys general, we can move quickly and our bread and butter is going to court. That’s what we do.”
“So when we see something bad coming out of Washington, D.C. or something big on the national scale, we can quickly mobilize.”
Fox News Digital has contacted the Democratic Attorneys General Association for comment.
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