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ATLANTA: The outcome in various disputed states will determine whether Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump. But if the Democratic challenger wins, the ambitions of a Biden presidency could come down to Georgia.
Georgia, long a Republican stronghold but with a rapidly changing demographic, could be the scene of two elections on January 5 to decide which party would control the Senate.
If the Democrats won them, Biden would be grappling with a majority in the Senate, increasing his chances of passing laws and securing important confirmation of appointments. Otherwise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, could wield the power to block Biden.
Other careers in North Carolina and Alaska also have the potential to reshape the balance of power, but Georgia offers the most likely possibility.
In Georgia, two second-round elections would mean a near-national campaign, with tens of millions of dollars spent by both sides.
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Biden has been silent on the Senate balance as he awaits the results of his own election, but offered a preview days before Tuesday’s election.
“I can’t tell you how important it is that we change the United States Senate. There is no state more important than Georgia in that fight, ”Biden declared at a rally in Atlanta on Oct. 27, when he campaigned alongside Democratic Senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Votes were still being counted to determine whether Ossoff will meet Georgia Senator David Perdue in a second round. Georgia law requires an absolute majority to win state office.
Separately, a special election in Georgia to fill the pending term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson will require a runoff between Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the Republican named to the post last year after Isakson retired.
Nationally, the Senate is at 48-48. But Republicans lead unscheduled races in Alaska and North Carolina. On Thursday, attention turned to Georgia.
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Both sides promised unlimited funding would flow to campaigns and the airwaves, and predicted a stellar cast of activists for a state that in recent weeks attracted visits from Biden, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, the Democratic vice presidential candidate. Kamala Harris. and former President Barack Obama.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who led the Senate Democrats’ campaign efforts in the 2018 cycle, warned that McConnell, who has gleefully dubbed himself the “grim reaper” of the Democratic agenda, would threaten a presidency. of Biden if he returns as majority leader. .
“Their DNA has focused on obstruction and very little on constructive progress altogether,” said Van Hollen.
Comment: In a contested election, the United States Congress could choose the president
McConnell almost certainly would not give a floor vote to Biden’s proposal for an expansion of the public option of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 or the Democrat-proposed repeal of some of the US tax cuts. high level of Trump. McConnell refused to grant Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland hearings or a vote.
Meanwhile, progressives lament losses in the Senate elections that could have given Democrats a majority with a cushion. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, tried Thursday to downplay the trappings of Republican control, arguing that “bold actions by the executive branch that impact people’s lives” could still “define Biden’s legacy. “.
Republicans responded with warnings from an “extremist” government if Democrats, who appear positioned to keep a majority in the House despite losing seats, control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“David Perdue won this race in regular time and he will do the same in overtime,” said Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, criticizing Ossoff as a front man for “the National Democrats and their dream. shared of a socialist America “. ”.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, was more severe. “We are in danger of losing the Senate to extremist liberals who want to raise their taxes, defund the police and pass legislation for a government takeover,” Hawley wrote in a fundraising speech for Loeffler.
Biden’s tax plan proposes increases only for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Neither Ossoff nor Warnock is proposing to “defund the police.” And Hawley’s fundraising email did not explain what the Democrats “takeover” would be. But his claims trace the flaws that will define the runoff campaigns.
In Georgia, Republicans and Democrats embraced the national framework, even when they spoke about the individual attributes of their candidates. Loeffler is the first female senator from Georgia in the modern era. Warnock, pastor of the church where civil rights icon Martin Luther King Junior preached, would be Georgia’s first black senator elected.
“These are compelling candidates … but I think they have to accept it for what it is – a Democrats vs. Republicans race that is all about setup and authority in the Senate,” said Jack Kingston, a former congressman who narrowly lost a second. return of the Republican Senate to Perdue in 2014.
Democratic state president Nikema Williams, who was just elected to succeed the late Congressman John Lewis, said it is impossible to separate control of the Senate from issues that concern voters on the ground. “That national conversation has implications for all Georgians,” he said, noting that McConnell has blocked Democratic bills to expand the Voting Rights Act and send aid to state and local governments hit by the pandemic and would do the same. with medical care and other Biden. initiatives.
“I can’t wait to have that discussion,” Williams said.
Williams further held the attention as a confirmation of Georgia’s battlefield status. Trump won the state by 5 percentage points in 2016, and the Democrats have lost almost every state contest for two decades.
For Ossoff, it’s a finishing touch at the beginning of Trump’s term, when he ran for a suburban seat in the Atlanta House of Representatives that became the most expensive congressional race in U.S. history up to that point. He lost. Warnock, meanwhile, is making his first bid for public office.
“Brace yourself Georgia, the negative ads are coming,” Warnock says in his first run-off ad posted Thursday, with a voiceover featuring mocking attacks: “Raphael Warnock eats pizza with a knife and fork … Raphael Warnock he even hates puppies. “
“I stay focused,” Warnock tells the camera. “And by the way, I love puppies.”
