The republicans here in Georgia need a better advertising and messaging campaign. Their ads and branding were awful
That certainly appears to be the case.
As it is, less than 20% of its 159 counties appears to have come very close to electing a candidate openly endorsed by the DSA and CPUSA.
The question then, at least for me, would be how efficient is it to spend precious campaign/advertising dollars in those core (substantially contiguous) counties. In any event, the R's need to find charismatic representatives from those counties/areas in order to make a change.