• Pence urges GOP unity in Georgia.
ATLANTA — Ahead of President Donald Trump wading into two high-profile Georgia Senate runoffs this weekend, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday urged Republicans to form a united front in the contests that will determine which party controls the Senate in January.
Mr. Pence campaigned Friday with Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, with the GOP roiled by Trump’s continued denial of his own defeat and his baseless attacks that Republican officials in Georgia, including the governor and secretary of state, enabled widespread voter fraud on behalf of President-elect Joe Biden. There have even been suggestions from some Trump allies that conservative voters should sit out the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in protest, a notion Mr. Pence took head on.
“I know we’ve all got our doubtsabout the last election, and I hear some of you saying, ‘Just don’t vote,’ ” Mr. Pence declared in Savannah. “My fellow Americans, if you don’t vote, they win.”
Democrats countered with their own show of unity, as former President Barack Obama appeared in a virtual rally with Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Mr. Biden, meanwhile, confirmed to reporters in Wilmington, Del., where he has based his transition, that he will come to Georgia ahead of the runoffs, though he didn’t say when.
The flurry of top-flight surrogates underscores the stakes and why some Republicans remain concerned that Mr. Trump’s emphasis on his own political prospects threatens the GOP’s Senate majority.
“We cannot just sit back and not vote,” Republican Rep. Buddy Carter told those gathered to hear Mr. Pence on Friday afternoon in Savannah. “We’ve got to get out.”
Republicans to need one more seat to allow Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to maintain his majority leader post and block Mr. Biden’s priorities. Democrats need to win both seats to force a 50-50 Senate and set up Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to tilt the chamber to Democrats as the tiebreaking vote.