U.S. Senate runoffs in Ga. to set tone in D.C.
Crucial control is at stake as Dems, GOP make final pitches
ATLANTA — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday told Georgia Democrats they had the power to “chart the course” for a generation, and Vice President Mike Pence urged Republicans to vote for “the last line of defense” in Washington in a series of final pleas ahead of runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
The men spoke hours before President Donald Trump made his case to voters at a last-ditch nighttime rally in Dalton, in north Georgia, where Republicans were banking on strong voter turnout Tuesday to reelect Sen. Kelly Loe±er and return David Perdue to office and hold control of the chamber.
Biden campaigned with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, hoping he could energize the coalition that secured him a narrow Georgia victory in the presidential race in November.
“Folks, this is it. This is it. It’s a new year, and tomorrow can be a new day for Atlanta, for Georgia and for America,” Biden said at a drive-in rally. “Unlike any time in my career, one state — one state — can chart the course, not just for the four years but for the next generation.”
The stakes have drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending to a once solidly Republican state that now finds itself as the nation’s premier battleground. Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November, though Trump continues pushing false assertions of widespread fraud that even his now-former attorney general and Georgia’s Republican secretary of state — along with a litany of state and federal judges — have said did not happen.
Biden said he needs a Senate majority to pass legislation to combat the coronavirus, and he blasted Perdue and Loe±er as obstructionist Trump loyalists. Loe±er says she will join other Republican lawmakers in objecting to the Electoral College certification of Biden’s victory by Congress on Wednesday.
“You have two senators who think they’ve sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not the United States Constitution,” Biden said.
Earlier Monday, Pence told a crowd of conservative Christian voters to stop a Democratic takeover in Washington. “We’re going to keep Georgia, and we’re going to save America,” Pence said at Rock Springs Church in Milner.
Perdue addressed the church crowd by telephone while quarantining over coronavirus exposure, claiming that “the very future of our republic is on the line” and declaring the duty to vote “a calling from God.”
Republicans need just one victory to maintain Senate control and force Biden to contend with divided government. Democrats need a sweep for a 50-50 split, giving the tiebreaking vote to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will succeed Pence as the Senate’s presiding officer. That would give Democrats a Senate majority to go along with control of the House and executive branch.
Playing to a passionate pro-Trump Republican base, Perdue, whose first Senate term expired Sunday, and Loe±er, an appointed senator trying to win her first election, have run as unabashed Trump Republicans and spent the two-month runoff blitz warning of a “radical” and “dangerous” lurch to the left.
Ossoff and Warnock have countered with warnings that a Republican Senate will stymie Biden’s administration, especially on pandemic relief.
More than 3 million Georgians already have voted. Monday’s push is focused on getting voters to the polls Tuesday. Democrats ran up a wide margin among 3.6 million early votes in the fall, but Republicans countered with an Election Day surge, especially in small towns and rural areas.
Even with Biden’s statewide win, Perdue led Ossoff by 88,000 votes in November, giving the GOP confidence in the runoff. The runoffs were required because none of the candidates reached a majority vote, as required by Georgia law. Despite Perdue’s initial advantage, early voting figures suggest Democrats have had a stronger turnout heading into Tuesday, and leading Republicans have expressed concerns about the pressure that puts on their turnout operation.