With the presidential and congressional election results finalized, and both resulting in a Democratic victory, all eyes now fall on Georgia, where two runoff elections set for January 5, 2021 will determine which party will take control of the Senate. If Republicans can win one of these runoff Senate races, Republicans would maintain a majority. This Republican majority would give GOP Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, the power to veto President Elect Joe Biden’s policies and legislation, and likely make confirming his cabinet picks a difficult process.
Runoff elections are common for state and federal office elections in southern states, where in order to win a seat, candidates must pass a 50 percent voting threshold. Under Georgia’s runoff legislation, candidates must receive a majority of the vote to win an election, and since neither of the candidates in both Senate races got over 50 percent of the voting races between incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Jon Ossoff (D) or with incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (D), a runoff election will be held to determine the winner of each seat.
Since the runoffs have been announced, the candidates have taken to running as party teams. Democratic candidates Warnock and Ossoff have seemingly become running mates, campaigning together, trying to persuade voters to send them both to the Senate floor. Ossoff, a 33 year old Jewish documentary producer appeals to the new generation of young voters, while Warnock, a 51 year old pastor, is popular with the party’s Black voter base, two demographics that showed out in the presidential election and are credited with turning Georgia "blue". Republican incumbents Perdue and Loeffler have also taken to running a joint campaign, arguing that a GOP Senate is the only thing that can check the Biden-Harris Oval Office and a Democratic Congressional House. This campaign’s demographics are targeted towards conservatives in suburban areas throughout Georgia, a demographic that has largely backed Trump’s administration, who wishes to see some sort of Republican majority in this new Biden administration. Their other main target is to get already registered Republicans who consistently show up to vote, to come out again and help them in this runoff election rather than trying to get new voters to register as Republican. Each party’s campaign aims to register voters by the December 7th special deadline and have them show up on January 5th, either in-person or through an absentee ballot, and cast their vote in an election that is typically overlooked by voters.
Currently, the Senate stands at a 50-49 hold. If both Democrats win the runoffs, they would pull the Senate into a 50-50 tie, which would theoretically give Democrats control of the Senate, since Kamala Harris, as Vice President, would always cast tie-breaking votes. This will give Democrats the majority in all three branches, something that hasn’t been seen in a Democratic presidency since 2009–2011 during the Obama administration.
Cover photo courtesy of Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
About the writer:
Valeria Leon is the 2020-2021 Co-Editor for The Lion's Roar. You can learn more information about her by clicking here.
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