For the seventh time in four years, Georgia's seven million registered voters will cast ballots on Tuesday.
Due to a peculiarity in the state's election legislation, victorious candidates for positions at the state level in general elections must receive fifty percent of the votes cast rather than just more votes than the opposition. Candidates from both parties have missed that goal twice in the last four years.
Therefore, a run-off election will be held in 2021 to fill both the US Senate seats currently held by Georgia and a new one. The incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock will compete against Republican Herschel Walker, who is supported by former President Donald Trump and who has been accused of paying for the abortions of his wives and girlfriends despite professing a staunch anti-abortion stance.
The two will compete head-to-head for the opportunity to represent a state that has recently been at the center of political instability. Indeed, 99 of the 100 Senate seats have already been decided by the midterm elections, with the Democrats holding 50 of the seats to the Republicans' 49.
Georgia's run-off will not alter the balance of power because of the constitutional provision that the vice president can break a tie in the chamber. So why is Georgia's runoff important, you might be wondering? Of sure, 51 senators is a better number than 50 at the most fundamental level.
It implies that you can lose one supporter while still getting your way on a complex matter. That will be important for senators running in 2024, including the conservative-leaning Democrat Joe Manchin from West Virginia, which leans heavily Republican.
To retain his seat in 2024, Senator Manchin will need to persuade his conservative-leaning constituents that he is not a Joe Biden fanboy, as he has already demonstrated how much sway he has in the specifics of legislative negotiations in the current Congress.
Additionally, having 51 senators gives you more influence over the complex procedures followed by the chamber's committee structures. Furthermore, it is simpler to get your way when it comes to one of the Senate's most important responsibilities, approving federal judge nominees.
This is because approving nominees is a highly political process in a highly political nation. The parties have been investing tens of millions of dollars in this contest, and television advertising is at an all-time high, even though the key motivating element, Senate control, has already been decided.
The competitiveness of the advertising and how close the race is are directly correlated. Every vote counts since the difference between the two men are no more than one or two percentage points.
It is reported that $70 million (£57 million) has been spent by both sides in their radio and television battles. Both parties have made personal and moral targets of one another. Videos purportedly showing Raphael Warnock's ex-wife sobbing following a domestic dispute have been shown by the Walker camp.
They claim he oversaw a camp for underprivileged kids where "urine was thrown at the children" and was in charge of housing for the poor were "full of human feces and even rotting corpses." Regarding the Warnock camp, his advertisements claim that Herschel Walker is chafing lies like an emblem of honor.
He is accused of lying about his educational background, philanthropic contributions, business career, and an odd incident in which the former football star purported to have worked in law enforcement but hadn't.
Concerning allegations of abuse and apparent hypocrisy about abortion, affiliated political surrogates and action groups have targeted Mr. Walker.
Given how many unfavorable stories are circulating, it's often astounding that he's still polling so closely. That his supporters may stand by him is evidence of how tribal such races can be. However, when you look at the numbers, Mr. Walker should be concerned.
On November 8, he received less than fifty percent of the vote, making him the lone Republican vying for office statewide. That indicates that a sizable portion of Republicans made a conscious decision not to support him.
When outgoing Republican Lieutenant-Governor Geoff Duncan revealed to the world that he had waited in line for an hour to vote early this week but couldn't bring himself to support Mr. Walker, it served as a pretty public illustration of his issue with more moderate Republicans.
Raphael Warnock cannot, however, take it easy. He and fellow Democrat John Ossoff may have won their respective run-off elections at the start of 2021, but those triumphs defied a long-standing pattern in Georgia that has seen Republicans gain more votes in the majority of run-off elections since the 1960s, according to research by Five Thirty-Eight.
The absence of other Republicans off the ballot this time, however, may make it more difficult for Mr. Walker to convince party members to cast a ballot at all, and he might not have done himself any favors by skipping five days of work over Thanksgiving during the key last push.
Additionally, he has had difficulty enlisting notable figures of note to support him; this week, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came close.
While Raphael Warnock was able to secure the endorsement of the late President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, who both appeared in political advertisements. Despite publicly endorsing Mr. Walker and even mentioning him in his Mar-a-Lago presidential bid announcement.
Donald Trump has chosen not to travel to personally support the candidate, and many will closely examine the final results to determine what implications there may be for the likelihood of his candidacy.
Most importantly, following Tuesday's election, Georgians will be able to exhale with pleasure and enjoy not having to cast ballots, wait in line, or put up with the constant, pugilistic scuffle that passes for politics in the Peach State for the next almost two years.
Reference:
Gary O'Donoghue, BBC News, (2022 December 5th). "Georgia run-off: Candidates make final push for crucial Senate seat": On Tuesday, Georgia's seven million registered voters will go to the polls for the fifth time in four years.
Comments / 0