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Georgia's Senate Runoffs - 5 Jan 2021


JR!

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Now to support the state of Georgia to get Senate majority! If Democrats win both runoffs—and Kamala Harris is vice president—then Democrats will gain majority. (Vice presidents can provide tie-breaking votes.)

What happens if either of the republicans, win their runoffs with Biden being elect-president? Four more years of gridlock. The House and the White House will be Democrat-controlled, with a Republican-controlled Senate.

Mitch McConnell will continue to be senate majority leader and will block all Biden proposals! This is not over yet! We have to support the GA runoffs in January! Get involved and make it happen!

Read more here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/politics/georgia-senate-runoff-explainer.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR3MQ81_QlkJS-CjERET1X-SFlYrDXf1AZOJsVzd18E2Dh46T_wKQzaaY4s

By Luke Broadwater

As the dust settles from the presidential race, the eyes of the political world have already shifted to Georgia, where two runoff elections set for early January will almost certainly determine which party has control of the Senate.

The outcome of the contests, which will play out two weeks before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration, will either swing the majority to Democrats, handing the new president broad power to carry out his policy agenda and push through nominations as he sees fit, or leave Republicans in charge, allowing them to influence his plans.

In the weeks ahead, tens of millions of dollars in campaign cash are expected to pour into the state to fund a marathon of political advertising, while party leaders and interest groups on both sides train their attention on the races.

Here’s how it will work.

A runoff election is essentially a rematch that is held when none of the candidates meet the criteria for winning. Under Georgia law, candidates must receive a majority of the vote to win an election. If no candidate breaks 50 percent, the top two vote-getters then face off again in a runoff election to determine the winner.

Since the 1990s, Democrats have won only one of seven statewide runoffs in general or special elections, according to Inside Elections, the nonpartisan political newsletter.

While Senate elections are staggered so that a state’s two seats are not up for re-election at the same time, this was an unusual year for Georgia.

Senator David Perdue, a Republican, was facing a normal re-election race for the seat he won in 2014. In addition, Senator Kelly Loeffler, another Republican appointed last year to succeed Senator Johnny Isakson after he retired because of health issues, was facing a special election to serve out the remainder of his term until 2022.

Both of their races went to runoffs because neither they nor their challengers garnered at least 50 percent of the vote.

It is traditionally more difficult for candidates to convince voters to turn out for elections that do not feature the presidential contest on the ballot, and this special election will come shortly after New Year’s with the country still in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the past, Democrats have struggled in such races, with Republicans dominating the format in conservative-learning Georgia.

But both parties are expected to dump ample resources into turning out their voters for the runoffs, and since there are no other races happening around the country, enormous national attention will be focused on Georgia.

The stakes will be high. Republicans hold a 53-to-47 majority, but after elections this week, they were tied 48 to 48 with Democrats. While Senate races in Alaska and North Carolina have yet to be called, Republicans are expected to prevail in those states, which would put the party in control of 50 seats.

If Republican leads in those states hold, Democrats would need to capture both of the seats in Georgia to secure a 50-50 tie in the Senate. Then, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could cast tiebreaking votes to carry out the Democratic agenda. If they were to lose one, Republicans would maintain their majority, albeit by the slimmest of margins.

With judicial nominees, a stimulus deal, infrastructure and health care measures, and tax and spending policies all on the line, the Senate races in Georgia are likely to take on an intensity that mirrors the presidential race that just ended.

And with President Trump refusing to concede and making baseless accusations that the election was stolen from him, Republicans are likely to try to use their grievances about the presidential race to galvanize their voters to turn out in Georgia and deny Mr. Biden the Senate he would need to get things done.

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This is still a risk - the commentators say that, as its only Senate seats and not the presidential race, that turnout will be much lower, and in particular all those in Georgia that voted last week to get rid of Trump might not vote in the run offs. Georgia needs to keep up the fight!

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Decaying Confederate Monument Mitch McConnell (I stole that from twitter) needs to be relegated to Minority Leader of the Senate since Kentucky voters voted him back in (I've no idea why). These two Senate seats from Georgia are up for grabs and here's information if you're interested in donating:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dscc-warnock-ossoff-runoff-nov2020

 

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  • 1 month later...

Democrats may make history in Georgia's Senate runoffs
CNN Digital Expansion 2018 Harry Enten | Updated 1401 GMT (2201 HKT) January 3, 2021

201231133625-02-week-in-photos-1231-exla

Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock greet each other onstage during the "Vote GA Blue" concert at New Birth Church on December 28, 2020.

(CNN)Poll of the week: My average of Georgia polls shows the two Senate runoffs on Tuesday are within the margin of error and way too close to call.

In the race for the full six-year term, Democrat Jon Ossoff is at 49% to Republican Sen. David Perdue's 48%.

In the special Senate election, Democrat Raphael Warnock is at 50% to Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler's 48%.

What's the point: The math is simple for Senate Democrats. If Democrats win both runoffs in Georgia, they get 50 seats overall and a majority on January 20 with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie. If Republicans win either seat, they will hold the Senate majority.

Right now, Democrats may very well defy historical trends and win both races to achieve a Senate majority. If Democrats do it, they'll probably be able to thank Republican President Donald Trump.

Indeed, this election isn't just about Georgia and the Senate majority. It's about Trump's legacy. If Republicans lose in Georgia, Trump will be to blame. Republicans in purple states will have to think long and hard about being attached to Trump in the future, even after he has left office.

The Republicans should win. The Republican candidates got more votes in both the full term Senate and special Senate races this past November.

Additionally, Georgia Republicans have improved in seven of eight statewide runoffs compared to their first round performance since 1992.

Those two factors in combination should have made life difficult for Ossoff and Warnock. Instead, Perdue and Loeffler are fighting for their political lives.

It's hard not to assign Perdue and Loeffler's troubles at least partially to Trump. He was the weak link for Republicans running statewide in Georgia this past year. He lost by 0.2 points and his margin was more than a point worse than the Republican candidates in both Senate races.

More bluntly, Trump is the only Republican to lose a statewide race in Georgia in more than a decade.

In theory, Perdue and Loeffler do not want this race to become about Trump. Trump, however, has helped to accomplish the opposite of that.

He has very much stayed in the news in Georgia. He has attacked Georgia's November election as fraudulent without any proof and gone after the Republican governor and secretary of state. He elevated the issue of $2,000 stimulus checks and has allowed Ossoff and Warnock to point out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it hard for such a stimulus to pass through the Senate. (The stimulus is popular.)

Trump is reminding the few but very important split ticket voters in Georgia that Perdue and Loeffler are part of Trump's Republican Party.

In doing so, he may be helping to change the dynamic of what normally occurs in runoffs in the Peach State.

We haven't been seeing Republicans picking up ground ahead of the runoff like they normally do. As the averages show, it seems that the Republicans may actually be losing ground.

Republicans are probably hoping that the polls are underestimating them in Georgia like they did in November nationally. And it may turn out to be the case that the polls are underestimating Republicans. Even if they are by just a touch, it would be enough for Republicans to win.

On the other hand, the turnout we're seeing to this point in Georgia has nothing to do with the polls.

Traditionally, you should be seeing a massive decline in turnout for a Georgia runoff.
As it turns out, the turnout level for these runoffs (over 3 million voters) has already exceeded that of any statewide Georgia runoff by about a million voters. Keep in mind, this has occurred with voting on the day of the election still to occur.

We're likely going to see turnout at least match if not be higher than the last regularly scheduled midterm election and potentially be closer to 2020 general election presidential year turnout when all the votes are counted.

Now, it would be one thing if Trump's antics were driving Republicans to the polls. After all, high turnout doesn't come close to guaranteeing a Democratic victory.

But so far, the turnout swing seems to be favoring Democrats. Black voters have consistently been making up 3 to 4 points more of voters through the early voting period than they did at the equivalent points in the general election.

Meanwhile, turnout in the more White rural areas of the state has been lagging. A lot of these White rural voters are fans of Trump, and it could be that him attacking Georgia Republicans makes them less likely to want to turn out and vote.

This has left the Republican Senate candidates in a catch-22 in the state. They now need Trump to come to the state to help turn out his voters in the final days in order to make up for the poor early voting numbers in the state. This comes as Perdue is quarantining because he came into close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.

Trump may be able to boost turnout and help Republicans stagger over the finish line.
Of course, Trump's visits may end up reminding anti-Trump Republicans why they didn't like Trump in the first place.

If Republicans hold onto even one of their Senate seats in Georgia, Trump perhaps isn't as toxic to Republicans as some might assume. No doubt, you'd hear Trump trumpet a Republican win in Georgia for months to come.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/georgia-senate-runoffs-analysis/index.html

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Meanwhile we have “A New Argentina” (The Orange Cunt Remix)” happening in Washington DC.
Let’s hope these two senate seats will go indeed to the Dems so that these enabling vile Republicunts finally see and feel some consequences. 

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Stacy Abrams is Dem ROYALTY. Deserves EVERY highest medal, statues and...Pres or VP! Count on it all.

Beyond thrilled and will TAKE 50/50 but Dems should be at 51/49. NO f'ng idea how Biden won MAINE (dark purple state) by NINE and Susan (concerned) Collins whose been loathed last 2 years WON by nine! 

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8 hours ago, Ciccone's Cheeks said:

Stacy Abrams is Dem ROYALTY. Deserves EVERY highest medal, statues and...Pres or VP! Count on it all.

Beyond thrilled and will TAKE 50/50 but Dems should be at 51/49. NO f'ng idea how Biden won MAINE (dark purple state) by NINE and Susan (concerned) Collins whose been loathed last 2 years WON by nine! 

THIS X1000! God bless her! 

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