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After his defeat in the presidential election, incumbent Donald Trump is fighting to keep the majority of his Republicans in the powerful United States Senate.
Travel to Georigia to campaign: the president of the United States, Donald Trump. (File image)
Reuters / Yuri Gripas
If Georgia’s two Democrats win a Senate seat each, the government will be easier for the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
Reuters / Leah Millis
Jon Ossoff gets dangerous for incumbent Perdue.
Reuters / Dustin Chambers
When US President-elect Donald Trump leaves for Georgia this Saturday, some Republicans are likely to get nervous. The still 74-year-old starter is furious about his loss to Joe Biden (78). Hardly a day goes by without complaining about suspected fraud and thus further undermines confidence in the electoral system. A month before the important second-round elections for two seats in the powerful United States Senate, he is supposed to support Republican candidates in a performance in the city of Valdosta (Sunday CET 1:00 am). Party colleagues worry that the resentful Trump could drag Republicans into the abyss in the fight for their political future.
The second round of the January 5 elections will decide which of the two parties will control the Senate in Washington. If Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock prevail over two Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Biden would have on his side governing both houses of the US Congress. However, if Republicans defend their majority, they can block bills and presidential candidates for government or judicial office. The drastic reversal of Trump’s policy that Biden wanted would become much more difficult, as would far-reaching reforms.
Bad service to Republicans?
According to a poll published a few days ago, Warnock is currently seven percentage points ahead of Loeffler. Ossoff and Perdue are nearly tied, with the Democrats two points ahead. Who wins the close race at the end will also depend on how many supporters the respective camps can mobilize. The president could be doing his Republicans a disservice with baseless allegations of voter fraud that Trump never tires of repeating.
Trump has yet to acknowledge his loss to Biden, claiming that Democrats deprived him of the November 3 election through large-scale fraud. Although there is no evidence of this yet and his lawyers have been unsuccessful, the president is trying to reverse the results in several states. Eric Johnson, an adviser to Republican Loeffler, told the New York Times that you couldn’t talk about a rigged voting system and at the same time call people to vote. Trump must drop his accusations or ask people to use their votes to help Republicans achieve a victory so clear that no one can shake it.
Yet it’s not just Trump’s election fraud allegations that could pose a problem for Republicans. In his anger at the election result, Trump also openly addresses his own party friends in Georgia. Republican Governor Brian Kemp in particular has felt this in recent days. Trump said in an interview Sunday that he is now ashamed of having supported Kemp in the gubernatorial race. On Twitter, he even asked Kemp to cancel the second round elections. By Trump’s logic, they would be superfluous if the November 3 election were only properly scrutinized.
Trump is still popular
Kemp did not counter Trump’s attacks. “I’m just as frustrated as he is, a lot of people are,” he said instead on Thursday. Kemp made a comparison to his experience on the football team in high school: While you had to play against your own friends in the training field and kept hitting each other head, you were getting closer to the start of the season and the big games.
That must now happen in the Republican Party as well, Kemp said. “I think we all have to come together and figure out what to do to reassure people that their voices are important.” Everything else is in the hands of the Democrats. “It will give the radicals everything they want.”
Trump’s behavior puts Republican candidates in a dilemma. If they contradict his persistent allegations of voter fraud, they risk scaring Trump’s base. Trump remains popular with much of the population. Nationally, it garnered at least 74.2 million or nearly 47 percent of all votes. In Georgia, about 2.46 million of the nearly five million voters voted for him.
Violence and death threats
There is another concern about Republicans in Georgia. They fear Trump will further incite his supporters with the continuing accusations of fraud. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is responsible for Georgia’s elections, denounces violence and even death threats.
One of his employees, Gabriel Sterling, made an unequivocal appeal to Trump in the face of these excesses. Show your size, stop. Step in, tell your followers: don’t be violent. Stop threatening. He’s all wrong, he’s not American. “He warned that the dispute over the election result could lead to injuries and even deaths.
