What you need to know about the Senate runoff races in Georgia
Georgia, long considered a safe red state, is now the frontier for control over the Federal Government for the next four years. Source.
It could've been NC, but with Thom Tillis defeating Cal Cunningham in a crucial Senate race — the fate of Joe Biden's ability to properly govern now rests in two Georgia Senate runoff elections. Both parties will now pour all of their attention and remaining funds into flipping or protecting the two Republican seats in order to grab hold of a majority in the chamber.
Georgia’s election law requires candidates to receive over 50% of the vote and if this does not occur, the top two candidates face off in a runoff election. As of now, Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate. Democrats flipped one seat so far and need two more for a 50-50 split. If this happens, Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris would cast tie-breaking votes in the chamber and therefore securing a Democrat majority and unified control of the White House and Congress. The runoff will be held on January 5th.
Georgia is the only state in the country with two Senate elections this year. According to Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie, “All eyes will be on Georgia for the next two months, there will be record spending, unprecedented campaigning and tons of mudslinging in these races - more than we’re used to seeing.”
The first runoff race is between Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat earlier this year following the retirement of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson and Raphael Warnock, an African American Pastor from Atlanta. Loeffler’s first year in office was highly controversial. She was accused of dumping $20 million in stocks after a closed-door coronavirus senate briefing in January and she faced backlash about her remarks regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
The second race is between Republican incumbent David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker. Perdue has also faced criticism for mocking the Vice President-elect’s first name and was accused of running an ad with an anti-semitic trope. Ossoff is a key figure in the Democratic party’s efforts to turn Georgia blue. In 2017, he set fundraising records in a special election for a suburban Atlanta House seat but lost to Republican, Karen Handel.
Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator since 2005, but Georgia’s growing Democratic coalition has been receiving national attention for years. President-elect Joe Biden made history this general election as the first Democrat to win Georgia’s presidential race since 1992. Gillespie also said, “recent close elections suggest there are far more Democrats relative to Republicans in the state now.”
One professor of politics at the University of Georgia maintains that the two races will likely come down to voters of color, “there's a very high base of minority voters in Georgia, especially African American voters, and so a lot of what happens in any election is based on African American turnout.”
Anarrowly divided Senate means the president will need cross-party cooperation to make any legislative process. Democrats will keep their majority in the House of Representatives but with a smaller margin. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellsaid, “I’m not certain I’m the majority leader yet — as you all may have noticed — that will be determined in Georgia, so this is not yet decided in this overwhelmingly close national election.”