National Post (National Edition)
Georgia race could leave Senate fate hanging
Both Republicans and Democrats are preparing for the possibility that both of Georgia`s Senate races will go to runoffs, which would leave control of the Senate in limbo until January.
Incumbent GOP Senator David Perdue was just shy of the 50 per cent vote threshold needed to claim the seat outright, with most of ballots counted. If that holds, he would once again face off against Democrat Jon Ossoff, who trailed in the race by 110,487 votes out of about 4.9 million cast as of Thursday.
With Georgia`s other Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler already headed to a Jan. 5 rematch against Democrat Raphael Warnock, Democrats would still have a narrow, if unlikely, path to win the control of the Senate by winning both Georgia seats.
That would set up an epic national battle over the state as outside groups and both parties pour money and other resources into swaying the vote. It also would prolong partisan rancour over the Senate races, alongside potential legal fights in the presidential contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden
The Senate totals from Tuesday's election now stand at 48 Republicans to 48 senators who align with Democrats. In addition to the two Georgia races, Republican incumbents in North Carolina and Alaska are leading as the final votes are counted.
If Biden wins the presidency and Democrats win both of Georgia's runoffs, the tiebreaking vote in the Senate would be held by Kamala Harris, as vice-president. This would give Democrats full control of government — albeit by the slimmest of margins — since they also managed to hang on to control of the House.
The state also is in play for the presidential race. Trump was leading Biden by 12,835 votes in the latest count. Georgia officials said Thursday that there were 47,277 ballots statewide still outstanding.
The unprecedented dual run-off in Georgia could attract more than US$1 billion in political spending and bring in small armies of campaign volunteers, strategists and lawyers.
” You are talking about money in an unprecedented fashion,” said Rick Dent, a longtime political consultant who served as an aid to the late Zell Miller when he was Georgia's governor.
All four candidates are preparing for the next phase.
“If overtime is required when all of the votes have been counted, we're ready, and we will win,” Perdue's campaign said in a statement.
Ossoff 's communications director, Miryam Lipper, said on Twitter that when the run-off is held in January, “Georgians are going to send Jon to the Senate to defend their health care and put the interests of working families and small businesses ahead of corporate lobbyists.”
Loeffler asked for campaign donations on Twitter and said, “Control of the Senate could come down our race.”
Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said Republicans have had the advantage in past runoffs.
But the demographic changes in Georgia, which also are reflected in the close presidential race, mean some of the previous metrics
THESE RACES ARE BOTH GOING TO BECOME NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS.
may not apply.
“This is a different day,” she said.
Still, the odds favour the incumbent Republican Perdue in a head-to-head race against Ossoff, who lost a 2017 special election for an Atlanta-area House seat.
Loeffler, who was appointed by Georgia`s governor to fill the Senate vacancy left by Republican Johnny Isakson`s retirement, is also likely to prevail in her run-off against Warnock, a preacher from Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was once the pastor.
The get-out-the-vote operation will be intense, since new voters can be registered up until 30 days before the run-off.
The dual run-offs will be unlike any elections the state has seen before, said Kerwin Swint, a professor of political science at Kennesaw State University.
“These races are both going to be national campaigns now, with the stakes incredibly high,” Swint said.