President-elect Joe Biden’s hopes of enacting top Democratic priorities, such as expanding access to healthcare, fighting climate change, and providing more help for the coronavirus, will hinge on a couple of races for the United States Senate in Georgia. in january.
Democrats fell short of their goal of obtaining a Senate majority and in fact lost seats in the House of Representatives, putting Republicans in a good position to block Biden’s major legislative initiatives.
That leaves Biden’s party with the daunting task of trying to overthrow two sitting Republican senators in the traditionally Republican-leaning state, where Biden himself has a slight edge over President Donald Trump as the vote counting continues.
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“We take Georgia, then we change the world,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in New York on Saturday. The Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, also announced the January high-stakes elections, calling on Republicans to unite and saying “the fight is far from over.”
Republicans appear poised to fill at least 50 of the 100 Senate seats next year, assuming the advantages in North Carolina and Alaska hold. That makes winning both rounds of Georgia critical to gaining control of the Senate for Democrats. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could cast the runoff vote in the Senate.
Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue, who is seeking a second term, received 49.8% of the vote, compared to Democrat Jon Ossoff, who got 47.9%.
In the other race, Black Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock got 32.9% to Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler’s 25.9%. A third Republican, Rep. Doug Collins, failed to reach the second round after finishing third with 20%.
THE DEMOCRATS HAVE A CHANCE
Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator for two decades, but demographic shifts and the gradual improvement in Democratic performance in recent races suggest the party has a chance of winning the Jan.5 runoff, political scientists say.
But those odds will largely depend on keeping voters engaged, said Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University.
“The party that has the best participation operation is the one that wins,” Gillespie said.
Voter mobilization efforts have boosted the fortunes of Democrats, he said. Registration drives, like the one led by Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the gubernatorial race in 2018, helped register thousands. But it remains to be seen whether Georgia voters will come out in January as they did for the November elections, which included the presidential ticket.
Both Perdue and Loeffler are Trump allies. But Loeffler ran hard to the right this year to defeat Republican Collins.
He accepted the endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected Republican congresswoman who has promoted the unfounded pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. Loeffler has posted photos of herself on Twitter with members of a private militia and has called the Black Lives Matter movement, which protests against police violence and racial injustice, a “Marxist” group.
Amy Steigerwalt, a political science professor at Georgia State University, asked if Loeffler’s actions could now work against him in the runoff with Warnock and, in turn, bring down Perdue, as both Republicans will be on the ballot. election at the same time.
“Will he get a boost on some level from Perdue also running? … Or is it possible that now that some of the positions he took are being given more attention and attention, that honestly (could) hurt the two Republican candidates? Steigerwalt said.
“Democratic voters in particular in the exit polls mentioned that one of the main things that got them involved was racial justice,” Steigerwalt said.
PROPOSED OBJECTIVES AT PLAY
Biden’s cabinet elections and policy proposals would face rough waters if Republicans maintain a majority in the Senate. He pledged to strengthen and develop the Obamacare healthcare program. He also campaigned on a multi-trillion dollar plan to curb carbon emissions and create jobs, and said he was in favor of raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.
Those goals would face strong opposition from Republicans in charge of the Senate. There is likely to be a tough negotiation on any additional help for the coronavirus, which is opposed by several Republicans.
On the other hand, Biden, a former senator who campaigned as a centrist, has known the leader of the Senate Republicans, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for years. They have struck deals together before, including a deal to allow tax rates to rise for the wealthy in late 2012, when Biden was vice president. Last week, McConnell referred to Biden as an “old friend.”
“Look for him to push the long-standing priorities of his similar infrastructure, where perhaps he could find the support of one or two moderate Republicans,” said Scott Mulhauser, a Democratic strategist who worked for Biden in the 2012 presidential election.
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