Recent poll shows US Senate Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, leading the state’s Republican candidates, Senators David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler, by a narrow margin. The poll was released shortly after Ossoff and Warnock hammered their Republican opponents for not supporting Congress’ fight to give checks for $ 2,000 to Americans struggling economically during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The poll, conducted by The Trafalgar Group – a political and corporate market research firm based in Atlanta, Georgia – asked 1,022 likely Georgia voters who they planned to vote for.
In the race with Ossoff and Purdue, 48.6 percent said Ossoff and 46.4 percent said Purdue, a difference of 2.2 percent. In the race with Warnock and Loeffler, 47.1 percent said Warnock and 46.8 percent said Loeffler, a difference of 0.3 percent.
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The survey was conducted from December 23 to 27 using a combination of live calls, text messages, emails and two other proprietary methods. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percent.
With a week until the state’s second special round, more than half a dozen polls conducted in the past two weeks have shown Democratic candidates as either tied or swapping leadership positions well within the margin of error against their Republican opponents. The race will determine party control of the United States Senate.
Late last week, Ossoff and Warnock began using President Donald Trump’s unexpected request for $ 2,000 stimulus checks as a way to criticize Perdue and Loeffler for not supporting larger direct payments to Americans struggling economically during the pandemic.
On Monday, Ossoff tweeted that Perdue never supported direct payments. “David Perdue didn’t even want the first round of stimulus checks,” wrote Ossoff in a tweet that featured a video of Perdue saying, “A direct payment, I really object to that.”
Last Wednesday, Warnock posted tweets asking if Loeffler “supports Trump 100% of the time, why doesn’t she support $ 2,000 relief checks?” In a second tweet, Warnock wrote: “Even Donald Trump agrees that a $ 600 relief check is totally inadequate. But @KLoeffler will not yet come forward to deliver real relief to Georgian families.”
On Tuesday, the two Republican senators said they support checks for $ 2,000.
A report released on December 22 showed that Ossoff and Warnock outnumbered their opponents by tens of millions of dollars during the autumn leading up to the elections. Warnock also spent 38 times more on Facebook ads than Loeffler, although Republicans spent more on television advertising.
Democratic activist and organizer Stacey Abrams praised Ossoff and Warnock for “increasing” voter turnout and “leading the kind of turnout” that Democrats need to win in the traditionally conservative state.
If the two Democrats win, the Senate will be divided, with each party holding 50 seats and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker.
Newsweek contacted the Republican Party of Georgia for comment.