ATLANTA — Republicans and Democrats are racing to Georgia on Sunday to get in place for a nine-week, high-stakes, year-end sprint that could cost another $100 million and determine the balance of power in Washington.
The two runoffs will likely thrust Georgia into the center of the nation’s political fray and test the extent of Democrats’ emerging strength in what was once a Republican stronghold in the South.
Georgia, a once-reliable red state with rapidly changing demographics, will be the site of two Jan. 5 runoffs to settle which party will control the U.S. Senate. On Friday evening, Democrat Jon Ossoff and Georgia Sen. David Perdue narrowly advanced to a second round after three days of vote counting. Georgia law requires an outright majority to win a statewide office.
There will also be a special election to decide which candidate will fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican who retired at the end of 2019 due to Parkinson’s disease and other medical challenges.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, announced Kelly Loeffler as Isakson’s replacement. She’s running for the final two years of the term won by Isakson in 2016. Her opponent is Raphael Warnock, a Democrat and a senior pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church Ebenezer Baptist. As of Friday afternoon in the all-party primary, Warnock received 32.9% of the vote to Loeffler’s 26%. Because neither hit 50% of the vote, both will go head-to-head on Jan. 5.
Warnock’s ads for the runoff race started appearing just ahead of Saturday Night Live on NBC.
Nationally, the Senate-elect stands at 48-48. Incumbent Republicans lead uncalled races in North Carolina and Alaska. If the GOP holds on to those two seats, the balance of power would be 50-48. However, if Warnock and Ossoff win their races, it would be a 50-50 split in the Senate with the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to break a tie.
If President Trump wins all of his legal challenges in four states, which includes Georgia, he could conceivably challenge President-elect Joe Biden for the White House before all of the votes are certified.
In that case, whichever party wins the White House would control the Senate since the vice president serves as president of the Senate and would break any tie.
With so much power up for grabs, several high profile people are headed to Georgia to help win the races.
On Saturday, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang tweeted his #yanggang, “Evelyn and I are moving to Georgia to help @ossoff and @reverandWarnock win! This is our only chance to clear Mitch out of the way and help Joe and Kamala get things done in the next 4 years. More details to come but let’s go!!!”
The Lincoln Project, made up of disgruntled Republicans who largely helped Biden score a win, tweeted Saturday, “Today @Project Lincoln celebrates. Monday, Georgia. Forever, America.”
Stephen Wolf, a writer at Daily Kos Elections, tweeted, “No exaggeration to say that Dems winning the Jan. 5 Georgia Senate runoffs is the single most important unknown shaping the next decade of U.S. politics. GOP will dominate 2020s redistricting, run SCOTUS, & block all Biden judges. A Dem senate could curb all of those outcomes.”
“I can’t tell you how important it is that we flip the United States Senate. There’s no state more consequential than Georgia in that fight,” Biden declared at an Atlanta rally on Oct. 27, when he campaigned alongside Democratic Senate hopefuls Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Regarding the presidential race in Georgia, Trump has vowed to fight, and additional lawsuits are likely.
