Explainer: Why Georgia’s runoff elections matter for American politics?
Editorial Note: This was written on Jan. 4, 2021, before the 2020–21 Georgia Senate Election runoffs.
After an unusual Nov. 3 election across the U.S. and especially for Georgia, the battleground state is finding itself in the political spotlight again as the next two years rests on its nearly 10 million residents.
Georgians will vote in two Senate runoff races tomorrow after no candidate passed the state’s required threshold of 50% of the vote in the general election on Nov. 3. The Senate is the upper chamber in the American legislative system.
“I can tell you, it is very annoying right now to live [in Georgia] because at my house, just yesterday, I got five pieces of mail […] all reminding me to get out to vote. The phone rings constantly with reminders […] I get texts every two seconds,” Atlanta resident Marilyn Geewax said to Tsinghua University students on Dec. 29.
Geewax worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for over 20 years before becoming NPR’s senior business news editor and later a visiting professor at Tsinghua University.
Geewax and many Georgians found themselves in a second contentious election as they decide not one, but two senate seats. States structure elections in which only one senator is being voted on at a time, making this an even more unusual election.
Former Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson (R) resigned from the position in August 2019, during his six-year term, due to health concerns. In accordance with Georgia law, Governor Brian Kemp (R) appointed Kelly Loeffler (R) temporarily to the position until the election.
Loeffler is running to keep her incumbency against Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, former senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
At the same time, Georgians were scheduled to vote for Republican incumbent David Perdue’s seat against Democratic contender Jon Ossoff, a young documentary filmmaker.
As the U.S. Congress currently stands, Democratic senators form the majority in the U.S.’s lower chamber, the House of Representatives, and the Senate consists of 50 Republican senators, 46 Democratic senators, and two Democratic-aligned Independents.
The two seats from the Peach State determine if the Republicans form a majority with one or both seats going red or if the chamber will be evenly split if both seats go blue.
If the Senate is evenly split on legislation, U.S. law would allow Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to be the deciding vote. If Ossoff and Warnock both win, the Democratic senators will have an advantage on policy legislation.
If the Senate Republicans form the majority, they are able to block legislation proposed by Biden and restrict nominee appointments. The Senate approves all presidential nominations to judiciary or executive leadership positions.
As the consequences of the Southern state’s runoff races weigh heavy, campaign fundraising records have been broken. Ossoff and Warnock raised $106.8 million and $103.4 million, respectively.
Despite immense political funding, polls show narrow margins in both races. The latest FiveThirtyEight forecasts at time of publishing predict a 1.8 percentage point lead for Ossoff over Perdue and a 2.2 percentage point lead for Warnock over Loeffler.
“This is sort of a second presidential race in a sense,” Geewax said. “The people have chosen Joe Biden to be president, now it’s up to Georgians to decide if he will have the power to advance the things he wants to advance.”
