President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will both visit Georgia on Monday, a day before state voters cast their ballots in double contests to decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. USA for the first two years of Biden’s presidency.
The running races between Democrat Jon Ossoff against Republican David Perdue and Democrat Raphael Warnock against Republican Kelly Loeffler have captured national attention in the weeks following the November 3 elections.
Democrats will control 48 seats in the 100-member Senate and Republicans have 50. If either Loeffler or Perdue wins their races Tuesday, Republicans will retain control of the Senate.
Georgia Democratic Candidates for Senate Raphael Warnock, left, and Jon Ossoff, right, move toward crowds at campaign rally [File: Brynn Anderson/The Associated Press]
The two Democrats – Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, and Warnock, a former minister at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – must win to give their party 50 seats in the chamber.
So, under the U.S. Constitution, Vice President Kamala Harris will vote unopposed.
Sweeping the Democrats in the races would greatly improve Biden ‘s chances of passing his legislative agenda, as Democrats control the House of Representatives. Loss by Ossoff or Warnock could halt legislation.
“We are not getting any conversation about whether there is added value until the president-elect is part of this,” Biden White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon told him and Associated Press Sunday. “There is.”
Beyond legislative goals, Senate Democratic ruling on Biden would help shape the first years of his presidency, with cabinet nominees and federal judges – including Supreme Court judges – certified by a simple majority in the chamber.
Impeachment tests are also carried out by the Senate.
‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’
Tuesday’s vote will be yet another step toward the end of a turbulent election season that has seen Trump maintain, without evidence, widespread fraud and voting irregularities.
Trump continued his efforts to reverse the results in the state on Saturday, urging Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to rebalance the total to influence him.
“I just want to get 11,780 votes, one more than we have. Because we won the state, ”Trump told Raffensperger in the call, which was heard by U.S. media.
Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes, according to the final total confirmed by the state.
Loeffler and Perdue have both linked their political fares to Trump’s unfounded claims of electoral malpractice, with candidates calling for Raffensperger to resign after the general election, citing “mismanagement and lack of transparency ”, without offering further evidence.
In the weak days of the race, Ossoff, Warnock, and Loeffler have been on a campaign blitz, with perdue waiting on their own after being exposed to a person with the coronavirus.
On Monday, Biden will campaign in Atlanta, a day after Vice President Harris visited the city of Savannah. The president had previously campaigned in the state on Dec. 15.
U.S. Republicans Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are running to hold their seats in the Jan. 5 race [File: Jonathan Ernst/The Associated Press]
Biden’s win in Georgia, a state that has not voted for a Democratic primary candidate since 1992, has increased hopes for Warnock and Ossoff in a one-time Republican stronghold. The state has seen a flood of donations pour in for the four candidates and visits from high-profile members of both parties in recent weeks.
The races have pulled in a whopping $ 490m in advertising spend, according to tracking company AdImpact.
As in the general election, early voting has destroyed the total number of voters in a previous runoff, with more than three million votes cast so far. Such a vote tends to favor Democrats, with a larger Republican expected to vote on election day.
Both parties have held major campaign to get out of the vote, with Democrats hoping more voters from the black population will win their candidates to victory.
He will be in Georgia Monday night, 9:00 pm to RALLY for two GREAT people, @sendavidperdue & @KLoeffler. GET READY TO VOTE ON FRIDAY !!!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2021
More than 110,000 voters who did not take part in the November general election have already cast votes, according to the AP. Biden’s team has said their internal analysis reveals those votes preferred by Democrats.
The president’s team has directed about $ 18m in support of Democratic opposition opponents, including about $ 6m in staff and voter data support and $ 12m in construction- funding for both initiatives.
‘Illegal and invalid’
Trump, who is scheduled to hold a rally Monday night in Dalton, has walked the haphazard line in support of Loeffler and Perdue.
On the same day as the phone call to Raffensperger, he tweeted that Tuesday’s run was “illegal and illegal”. But soon after, he urged Republicans to “prepare to vote on Tuesday”.
Trump has dashed his hopes of abandoning the election results on a last-ditch attempt by some Republicans in Congress to challenge the election of Electoral College votes in major battle states.
At least 12 Republican Senators have said they will go through with the protest. Around 140 Republicans in the House of Representatives also plan to do just that.
However, the ploy certainly fails, as both chambers required a majority vote to block the testimony. The House is currently under Democratic control, and several Republican elders have said they will not join their colleagues in the effort.
When asked Sunday if she planned to go against the Electoral College voting credentials if she wins the race, Loeffler went on both sides.
“I said from the beginning, everything is on the table here and I’m really looking at that,” Loeffler told Fox News. “But my biggest number right now has to win on Jan. 5, so we can get to the bottom of what happened in those elections.”