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Republican primary candidates are betting that crime, border security and public safety will drive voters to the polls in November as they position themselves as front-runners against Democratic policies on immigration and law enforcement.
The Republican Attorneys General Association and its affiliates are launching an aggressive $11 million television attack on key battlegrounds this fall, with the first ad buys targeting attorney general races in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia and Kansas.
“I think we’ve learned that being aggressive is a good thing,” RAGA Chairman Austin Knudsen, who is also Montana’s attorney general, told Fox News Digital. “Being aggressive works.”
Republicans say the effort reflects a broader push to position Democrats on defense on crime and public safety issues in some of the nation’s most competitive races.
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Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen speaks during a Donald Trump rally at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
“I don’t think there’s any question that the winning message in AG races across the country in 2026 is public safety,” Knudsen said. “The American people care about public safety, they care about law enforcement, they care about border security.”
Knudsen has argued that attorney general races have become privatized because they can quickly challenge federal policies through lawsuits and multi-state legal coalitions.
Republican attorneys general have scored major victories against the Biden administration, including a successful challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness program that ended with the Supreme Court striking down the program in Biden v. Nebraska. Coalitions of GOP lawyers also sued to block the administration’s revised SAVE payment plan, winning court orders that delayed parts of the plan.
Republican-led states have also challenged the Biden administration’s efforts to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity, turning the attorney general’s office into a major factor in the nation’s culture wars.
“Congress talks. Attorneys General are working,” Knudsen said. “If we see something bad coming out of Washington, DC, we can come together immediately. We can file charges.”
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Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd speaks with Judge Kelly Morton, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, during the trial of former Delta Township Supervisor Ken Fletcher (left) in Eaton County. Also pictured is Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Marti, center. (Matthew Dae Smith / Lansing State Journal)
The ad booking builds on Republic’s broader expansion effort already underway. Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird’s campaign has already saved more than $2 million in television advertising, while RAGA says it has raised a record $29.3 million from all its affiliates by 2025.
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said Republicans are aiming to capitalize on what they see as voter frustration with criminal justice policies pushed by Democrats in swing states.
“RAGA has a good map in 2026 and will be guilty because the truth is that voters prioritize public safety and choose Republican AGs who fight crime and succeed in court over Democrat AGs who give themselves up to criminals with no cash bail,” Piper said in a statement.
“These early TV bookings and direct candidate investments are a down payment on the resources RAGA will develop this fall,” added Piper. “Democrats need to understand that Republican AGs are not playing defense. We are taking the fight directly to it.”
The GOP made Michigan the center of that debate.
Democrats there nominated Washtenaw County District Attorney Eli Savit, whose office became the first in Michigan to stop requiring cash bail and announced it would no longer prosecute certain low-level drug cases.
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Michigan Republican Attorney General Doug Lloyd, a longtime Eaton County prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that he believes public safety concerns cut across party lines in the war zone.
“People want to feel safe in their communities, and they don’t feel safe right now,” Lloyd said. “That’s an 80-20 problem.”
Lloyd also accused Democratic prosecutors of refusing to choose to enforce the laws, an issue Republicans continue to raise nationally.
“I believe that if you start making this statement that ‘I refuse to implement the laws established by our legislature and that are consistent with the constitution,’ then you are on your way to chaos,” Lloyd told Fox News Digital. “We’ve seen how that’s gone over the last eight years and I believe our citizens are tired of it.”
In Georgia, Republicans targeted Democratic attorney general nominee Tanya Miller for her vote against HB 1105, a post-Laken Riley immigration enforcement law that requires local officials to cooperate with immigration authorities.
Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how aggressive voters want attorneys general to challenge Democratic policies in court.
“We’ve seen a flood of fentanyl, cartel fentanyl and methamphetamine come from the southern border under Joe Biden and flood into every state,” Knudsen said.
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Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how angry voters want attorneys general to challenge Democratic policies in court.
“People have realized that attorney general races are important, I think we’ve gotten a lot of attention because of what we’ve been able to do,” Knudsen said. “As attorneys general, we can move quickly and our bread and butter goes to court. That’s what we do.”
“So if we see something bad coming out of Washington, DC or something big on a national scale, we can come together quickly.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Democratic Attorneys General Association for comment.
