Republican brass pour in for Georgia fight

CANDIDATES for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are to descend on the state of Georgia in the coming weeks in the lead-up to two Senate runoffs.

The races will take on huge importance because, if Democrats can beat both sitting Republican senators, they would achieve a 50-50 tie in the Senate.

When the Senate is split, the vicepresident casts the deciding vote, meani ng Kamala Harri s would gi ve Democrats control.

With the White House, and control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, Democrats would have a greatly increased chance of forcing through their agenda.

As Georgia became a rallying cry for Republicans, potential 2024 candidates, including Rick Scott, a Florida senator and Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, indicated they would be there shortly.

Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former UN Ambassador and a probable 2024 contender, wrote on Twitter: “All eyes will go to Georgia as we look at the fate of the Senate. Take a moment and show your support today and let’s win this in January!”

Responding to a comment by Chuck Schumer, the Democrat Senate leader, that “we take Georgia, then we change the world”, Ms Haley wrote: “Not on our watch. The fight may move to Georgia but victory is in our future.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr also pushed the importance of Georgia on social media. A spokesman said Mr Trump Jr would be “very involved” in the fight to keep the two Georgia seats on Jan 5. In Georgia if no candidate reaches 50 per cent there is a run-off.

In the first Georgia race David Perdue, the Republican senator who is seeking a second term, received 49.8 per cent of the vote last week, compared with Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, who got 47.9 per cent. In the other contest, Reverend Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, got 32.9 per cent compared with Senator Kelly Loeffler, the sitting Republican’s 25.9 per cent.

But there were several other Republican and Democrat candidates in that race, and when the totals were added up by party they proved about equal.

Georgia has not elected a Democrat senator for two decades, but changing demographics and the trend of recent elections suggest Democrats have a chance at winning the run-offs, political analysts said.