Georgia Senate Runoffs Heat Up

Loeffler vs Warnock, Perdue vs Ossoff: The Senate runoff elections in Georgia will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Is that what Republicans and Democrats are emphasizing?

Summary

While the November presidential election is heading to a hand recount in Georgia, attention is turning to the runoff elections for the state’s two U.S. Senate seats.

• Politico suggests the environment favors Republican incumbents Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, as Democrats “will have to defy a long track record of failure in overtime elections.”
• The Georgia Democratic machine of party officials and labor leaders in the state are working to keep their base motivated without President Trump on the ballot.
• For their part, Republicans are running on a “unity ticket”, sending the message that with control of the Senate at stake, Loeffler and Perdue are the “firewall” to prevent the enactment of a socialist agenda.
• Out of the gates, Raphael Warnock, a pastor and the Democrat candidate running against Loeffler in the special election, has been hit with a multitude of attack ads. Republican opposition researchers are combing through old sermons and church activities connecting Warnock to Cuba’s former Communist dictator Fidel Castro.
• With Democratic candidates highlighting healthcare as a key campaign issue, Sen. Loeffler found herself on the defensive. She recently introduced a healthcare reform plan of her own, which she says is a “patient-centered” plan that has provisions to help defeat the coronavirus pandemic.
• In the other Senate race, Senator Perdue declined an invitation to debate his Democrat opponent Jon Ossoff in December, drawing sharp criticism from Ossoff. Perdue previously declined to participate in a debate before the November general election.

• The New York Times details the back and forth of Georgia’s political pendulum swings over the last 30-plus years, while noting Republicans have the advantage in the runoff.
• Ossoff’s attacks on Perdue after his decision to not participate in a debate featured heavily in Newsweek’s coverage, with the outlet including Ossoff’s accusation of Perdue being a “coward” in the headline, only noting the Perdue campaign’s response in the last three paragraphs of the report.
• For liberal activists at Mother Jones, the race for control of the Senate is written through the lens of environmental policy, and what it would mean for climate change.

• Fox News reported on Democrat candidate Warnock’s rebuke of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s attempt to nationalize the Georgia races. Warnock contends the races are more “about the people of Georgia” than control of the Senate.
• The Washington Free Beacon reported on Warnock’s refusal to answer questions about his work at a church that hosted Fidel Castro in 1995.
• National Review painted Warnock as anti-Israel as a result of a sermon he gave in 2018 criticizing Israel’s response to attacks by Hamas. The conservative outlet also reported on Jon Ossoff’s previously undisclosed business relationshipwith a foreign company sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.
• Reporting by the Wall Street Journal details the concern among some Georgia Republicans that infighting between Trump loyalists and the Republican Secretary of State could fracture party unity and hurt turnout efforts.

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© Dallas Gerber, 2020