Early voting starts for Georgia Senate runoffs. Where do candidates stand in polls?
Candidates in Georgia’s runoff elections are locked in tight races as early voting kicks off Monday, polls show.
Both of Georgia’s races for U.S. Senate are headed to runoff elections in January after none of the candidates received over 50% of the vote in the Nov. 3 election as required by state law.
The outcome of the runoffs elections will determine whether Republicans or Democrats will control the Senate.
First-term Republican Sen. David Perdue faces Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff for one seat. In the other race, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler faces Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock, who would be Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator if he wins.
The runoff election will be held Jan. 5.
Here’s where the polls stand:
Perdue vs. Ossoff
Poll analysis site FiveThirtyEight shows Ossoff leading Perdue by an average of 1 percentage point, 48.5% to 47.5%, as of Saturday.
Ossoff is also up by an average of 1 percentage point in poll aggregator 270toWin’s average, 48.8% to 47.8%
But RealClearPolitics, a polling data aggregator, shows Perdue leading Ossoff by an average of half a percentage point — 49% to 48.5% — as of Dec. 10.
In the Nov. 3 election, Perdue received 49.7% of the vote compared to Ossoff’s 47.9%, per The Associated Press.
Perdue was elected to the Senate in 2014, winning 52.8% of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.
Both Perdue and Ossoff “steered toward the middle” in the election, The AP reports. Perdue has largely focused his message around the economy, while Ossoff has focused on Perdue’s response to the pandemic and Republican efforts to do away with the Affordable Care Act.
Ossoff debated an “empty podium” earlier this month after Perdue declined to participate in the debate.
Loeffler vs. Warnock
FiveThirtyEight shows Warnock leading Loeffler by an average of 1.6 percentage points, 48.5% to 46.9%, as of Saturday.
Warnock is leading by the same margin in 270toWin’s average, 48.6% to 47%.
RealClearPolitics shows Warnock up by a narrower margin, 49% to 48%.
Warnock won 32.9% of the vote to Loeffler’s 25.9% in the Nov. 3 special election, according to the AP.
Loeffler was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after former Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson stepped down for health reasons in December 2019.
She and Warnock faced off in a debate on Dec. 6 during which Loeffler refused to acknowledge that President Donald Trump lost the election and cast Warnock as a “radical liberal,” the AP reports.
Warnock slammed Loeffler as a “self-interested, uber-wealthy politician.”
Importance of the runoffs
As it stands, Democrats will have 48 seats and Republicans will have 50 seats in the Senate next year with the two Georgia seats yet to be decided.
If Democrats win both runoff elections, they would have control of the chamber as the vice president, in this case Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, breaks any ties. If Republicans win either of the races, however, they will have control of the chamber.
Earlier this month, Trump visited Georgia, where he held a rally meant to solicit support for Perdue and Loeffler. But his 100-minute speech largely focused on disputing the outcome of the presidential election and attacking Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, The New York Times reports.
Some members of the Republican party have expressed concern that Trump’s continued baseless claims that the election was fraudulent could hurt GOP turnout in the Georgia runoffs.
President-elect Joe Biden is set to visit the state Tuesday for a rally supporting Ossoff and Warnock, CNN reports.
Georgia has historically been a Republican stronghold, and Democrats haven’t won one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats in 20 years, the AP reports.
But it “may be undergoing a transformation,” FiveThirtyEight says, as Biden carried the state in the Nov. 3 election.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 7:49 AM with the headline "Early voting starts for Georgia Senate runoffs. Where do candidates stand in polls?."
