GOP on edge over early voting in Georgia
Early Democratic turnout dramatic; Republican infighting putting senators in peril
MACON, Ga. — Sen. Kelly Loeffler issued a now-familiar warning at a campaign event Wednesday in Bibb County: If Democrats win the Georgia Senate runoff elections, there will be little left to stemarising tide of extremistsocialisminamerica.
But Dale Washburn, a Republican state legislator who introduced Loeffler at the event, had another warning. This one was based not on ideology, but on numbers that suggest Democrats are outpacing Republicans in early voting turnout — which means Republicans may need a tremendous electionday performance Tuesday to win the state’s two highstakes runoff races and keep control of the Senate.
“We’re fully aware of the energy on the other side and think we’ve been reminded about that,” Washburn said. “We know demographics have changed in recent years. And if our side hasn’t been aware of that, they’re rapidly becoming aware of that. The Biden victory had a big part.”
Less than a week before election day, the last-minute challenges, messages and strategies for the two parties in Georgia’s runoffs are coming into focus, even as polls indicate that the elections are too close to call.
Those messages will be hammered home on the day before the elections by President-elect Joe Biden, who plans to campaign Monday in Atlanta, and by President Donald Trump, who will hold a rally on the same day in Dalton, innorthwestgeorgia.
But some Republicans are increasingly worried that Trump, who continues to claim that he lost Georgia because of a rigged voting system, is sending confusing signals to his followers that may serve to keep them home on election day.
Onwednesday, Trumpon Twitter pushed for the resignation of Gov. Brian Kemp, a staunch conservative and Trump supporter who has declined to try to overturn the state’s election results.
The president argued that Kempwas an “obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia.”
Meanwhile, Loeffler and her fellow Republican candidate, Sen. David Perdue, have crisscrossed the state, warning of an ominous future if their Democratic opponents, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jonossoff, prevail.
Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, Perdue said the Republicans were a “last line of defense” against centralized government, comparing his struggle to military conflicts such as World War II.
On “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning, he added: “We’re winning this race right now. Kelly and I are all over this state. We’re running against two of the most liberal candidates that the Democrats have ever put up.”
Democrats, for their part, have been crafting messages that they hope will resonate with African Americans, a constituency crucial to Biden’s narrowvictoryingeorgia in November.
One TV ad released Wednesday for Ossoff featured former President Barack Obama, who says Ossoff will pass a newvoting rights act if elected.
But it’s the numbers from early in-personandabsentee voting that are particularly troubling for many Republican operatives in the state.
Since the start of early voting Dec. 14, more than 2.5 million Georgians have cast their votes, and the breakdown appears to be mostly good news for Democrats.
The breakdown of votes shows that vote-rich Democratic strongholds, including Fulton and Dekalb counties in metropolitan Atlanta, are posting high numbers, while African Americans statewide are “voting their weight and then some,” said Charles
Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia.
At the same time, Bullock noted, turnout has been weak in the northwestern part of the state, which is home to manyworking-class white Trump supporters. In Walker County, which Trump won with 79 percent of the vote, the turnout, as of Wednesday, was only 47 percent of the general election total, according to the website georgiavotes.com.
Thatmay explain Trump’s decision to rally Monday in Dalton, a city known for its flooring and carpet manufacturing. It’s also in the heart of the congressional districtrecentlywonbyrep.elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican best known for espousing elements of the Qanon conspiracy theory.