The race for the Republican nomination for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat continues to heat up in the closing days before the primary, and candidates have made Gainesville a target of their get-out-the-vote efforts. Karen Handel, riding in a tour bus, pulled into the Denny’s parking lot on Browns Bridge Road shortly after 8 a.m. this morning. The former Georgia secretary of state is hoping to re-launch her political career after running unsuccessfully for governor in 2010.