Story highlights Bob Gray has said in multiple interviews that the H1-B visa was frequently abused by companies.

Three companies where Gray has been an executive have applied for and received H1-B visas.

(CNN) A Republican congressional candidate in Georgia's special election has been attacking a program that companies he managed used to hire foreign workers.

Bob Gray, who is running in a tight race to fill Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price's vacant seat in Georgia's 6th congressional district, has said in multiple interviews that the H1-B visa was frequently abused by companies. The visa is meant to allow employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations when there is a shortage of qualified Americans.

Yet three companies where Gray has been an executive have applied for and received H1-B visas, according data provided by the Department of Labor. Two of them, Keane and NTT Data Corporation, requested and obtained hundreds of H1-B visas for foreign employees. The third, Maine Point, employed two H1-B employees.

In an interview with radio host Chuck Wilder, Gray was asked about his position on the many American visa programs. Gray has repeatedly referred to the H1-B incorrectly as H1-B3, a visa for fashion models.

"I'll give you an example of one visa program that's been utterly abused," Gray said, "and that's the H1-B3 visa, which I know quite a bit about."

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