Political activity ramps up in NW Georgia
A canvassing effort is ramping up in Floyd County as the runoff for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats approaches on Jan. 5.
A group from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a national organization whose aim is to keep the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, has moved in at the GOP headquarters on Broad Street.
“It looks like a real war room now,” Floyd County GOP Chair Luke Martin said. “They’ve decided to put their regional office in Floyd for this runoff.”
Prior to the turnout, U.S. Repelect Marjorie Greene will speak briefly after returning from orientation in Washington, D.C., before the volunteers begin the canvassing effort.
As the two runoff races gain steam over the next six weeks the state will continue to see intense national attention as well as money pouring in from both political parties to bolster each campaign.
There’s a short amount of time for Republicans to step up their ground game. Early voting for the Senate runoff elections starts Dec. 14. The deadline for Georgia voters to register for the runoffs is Dec. 7.
In the past couple of weeks the GOP ramped up efforts to catch up with an established Democratic Party ground game in Georgia.
City Commissioner Wendy Davis, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee, said the GOP is playing catch up because they assumed Georgia was a given.
Democrats have focused heavily on the state and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is credited with much of the effort in bolstering the efforts after narrowly losing in 2018.
Vice President Mike Pence stopped in Cherokee and Hall counties Friday afternoon. He made it plain that with Biden’s win and U. S. House Democrats retaining their majority, Georgia Republican voters will need to hand GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler victories in the Jan. 5 runoff elections to block Democratic control of Congress and the White House.
“We need the great state of Georgia to defend the majority,” Pence said at a rally in Canton. “And the road to the Senate Republican majority goes straight through the state of Georgia.”
Hinting at the prospects of an incoming Biden administration, Pence said Georgia “could be the last line of defense” against Democratic control in Washington, D.C., though Trump still has not conceded defeat in this month’s general election.
Pence is the latest highprofile national Republican to stump for Perdue and Loeffler in Georgia ahead of the runoff elections, following visits from Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
They are helping fuel a campaign by national and state Republicans to paint Democratic Senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff, an investigative journalist, and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, as too far left for Georgia voters.
Ossoff and Warnock punched back this week, highlighting news reports on moves Perdue allegedly pursued to benefit a Navy supplier and professional sports owners, as well as an ethics complaint lodged against Loeffler for appearing to solicit campaign donations on federal property.