LOS ANGELES – Early voting is underway in the southern state of Georgia, for two Senate seats, for which neither candidate won a majority of the votes in the November election. At stake in the second round of January 5 – the balance of power in the US Congress.
Both U.S. President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden have focused their energies on racing. Trump said in a Dec. 5 rally in the state that “Georgia voters will determine which party runs each committee, drafts each legislation, controls each taxpayer dollar”, while he asked for support from Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
He plans to hold another rally on January 4 in Dalton, Georgia.
Biden campaigned for Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, telling voters on December 15 that “send these two men to me and we will control the Senate and change the lives of people in Georgia”.
Both races are competitive. Warnock is essentially tied with Loeffler. She was appointed to her seat by the state governor to replace Senator Johnny Isakson, who retired a year ago for health reasons.
The dispute between Ossoff and Perdue is also fierce. Perdue was elected in 2014 and Ossoff closed the gap to achieve a virtual tie in the latest polls.
Power in the US Congress has been divided. Democrats continue to have a majority in the House of Representatives, and the January 5 vote in Georgia will give any party control of the Senate.
“If the Democrats win two victories, there will be 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats – a tie,” said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe.
The tiebreaker votes will be cast by Democrat Kamala Harris, the next vice president, who will chair the Senate. Democrats need to win both seats to gain control, and Republicans need only one.
Biden reversed the recent voting patterns in November, beating Georgia by a fraction of one percent, while the two Democratic candidates for the Senate forced the second round to prevent candidates from reaching the 50% limit plus one vote.
“It was a huge victory for Democrats,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Relations at California State University in Los Angeles. “Even though it is a remote chance for Democrats to win both seats, it is a sign that Georgia is moving towards other parts of the South – towards a new coalition.”
Atlanta’s increasingly diverse suburbs may decide to control the US Senate
Georgia’s run-off in the Senate on January 5 follows Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in November, driven by minority voters in the Republican-inclined state
He said that Georgia, like the southern states of Virginia and North Carolina, has seen an influx of voters with higher education who tend to vote for Democrats.
“The African American population, the Latin population and the Asian American population have grown larger in these states,” said Sonenshein, leading to what he said was a more progressive constituency.
Still, said Jeffe, the Senate race will depend on who gets to vote.
“Democrats are acting strongly on a shoe leather campaign, knocking on doors, even in a pandemic,” she said, noting that Republicans lead in fundraising.