All Eyes on Georgia: Senator Runoffs

The state of Georgia is under a national microscope with the upcoming senator runoff competitions of Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock as well as the race between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Both political races have Georgia on everybody’s mind, with the fate of which political party will hold control over the U.S. Senate. If both Ossoff and Warnock beat their Republican opponents, the chamber will be split with Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaker because of her role as vice-president. If this happens, it will be the first time since 2008 that the Democrats have had control over the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate and White House.

“All eyes will be on Georgia,” said political scientist Dr. Karen Owen. “Georgia is really at the center of discussion when it comes to what is going on in our partisan politics right now.”

Georgia is expected to be flooded with resources to ensure that each candidate has people that turn out and vote. With the runoff being during the holiday season it will be harder to ensure that those who voted in the original election will come back out and vote. This will drive up the money spent on political advertising. According to pbs.org, this 2020 election cycle has been the most expensive campaign year in U.S. history. Before the runoff campaigning began advertising, spending reached the 2.5 billion mark. With the current runoff in Georgia, the political advertisements are going to be more extreme than ever before.

“The runoff is all about turnout,” said Owen. “Historically in Georgia republicans have done really good in runoffs. They have been able to turn their voters back out to vote.”

Ossoff and Warnock as well as Loeffler and Perdue have joined together in campaigns in hopes of running up voter turnout.

“If I win, she wins,” Perdue said at a rally last week. “If she wins, I win.”

Celebrities and political figures are showing their support for Ossoff and Warnock on social media. Gabrielle Union, Billy Eichner and Marco Rubio are among those who have gone to social media to show their support in the democratic duo.

Many are encouraging people to vote, including one-time governor nominee Stacy Abrams. Abrams and her organization, Fair Fight, recently raised millions in the span of two days for the campaigns of Ossoff and Warnock. Prior presidential candidates, Andrew Yang announced on Twitter he and his wife are moving to Georgia to help Ossoff and Warnock in the runoff election. Voter registration for the runoff is Dec. 7. Early voting for the runoff begins Dec. 14.