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ATLANTA: A day after the Electoral College confirmed his presidential victory, Joe Biden will travel to Georgia on Tuesday (December 15) to campaign for two Democratic candidates for the United States Senate whose January 5 runoff elections could make or break your domestic policy agenda.
Biden’s narrow victory in the southern state in the November presidential election completed his transformation from a Republican stronghold to one of the most competitive political battlefields in the country.
Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively, in twin races that will determine which party will control the United States Senate when Biden takes office on January 20.
If Republicans win either race, they would retain power in the Senate, allowing them to thwart many of Biden’s ambitious legislative goals on issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and climate change. A Democratic sweep would give the party control of the White House and Congress, where it also has a majority in the US House of Representatives.
Democratic Electoral College voter Steve Henson watches his Joe Biden signed vote for President of the United States in the Georgia State Senate chambers at the Georgia State Capitol Building in Atlanta on December 14, 2020 (Photo: Reuters / Elijah Nouvelage).
Biden’s trip to Atlanta comes nine days after President Donald Trump traveled to Georgia in support of Perdue and Loeffler. The president-elect’s visit also coincides with early voting in person, which began Monday when hundreds of Georgians braved the rainy weather to line up.
As in November, many voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail amid the ongoing pandemic. So far, more than 1.2 million residents have requested absentee ballots and more than 260,000 have already submitted them, according to the University of Florida’s United States Elections Project.
Biden’s victory has fueled Democratic hopes of capturing both seats, along with aggressive voter registration efforts and demographic shifts that have alienated the electorate from Republicans.
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However, Perdue ran ahead of Trump in the Nov.3 election and finished ahead of Ossoff, but just shy of the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff under state law. A candidate from a third party received approximately 2% of the vote.
The other race had a large number of candidates in November due to its special election status because Loeffler was named to fill a vacancy. Warnock and Loeffler finished in the top two positions, each well below 50 percent.
TURNOUT PROBLEMS
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into the state from both political parties and a variety of outside political groups.
Both sides face turnout challenges amid the pandemic and without the polarizing Trump at the top of the ballot to garner votes from his deeply loyal supporters and also from detractors with deep animosity toward him.
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Some Republicans in the state have expressed concern that Trump’s repeated insistence, without evidence, that the November results were fraudulent, could reduce turnout among his most ardent supporters.
Biden secured the presidency Monday after the Electoral College formalized his victory. Under US law, the president is not elected by a majority of the popular vote, but by the Electoral College, which grants electoral votes to the winner of each state as represented by Congress.
