Twin Senate runoffs in Georgia could shape Biden presidency
The outcome in several contested states will determine whether Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump

The outcome in several contested states will determine whether Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump But if the Democratic challenger wins, the ambitions of a Biden presidency could well come down to Georgia
Georgia, long a Republican stronghold ā but one with rapidly changing demographics ā could be the site of two runoffs on Jan. 5 to settle which party would control the Senate.
Should Democrats win them, Biden would be dealing with a majority in the Senate, increasing his chances for passing legislation and securing major appointment confirmations. Otherwise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, could wield the power to block Biden.
Other races in North Carolina and Alaska also hold the potential to reshape the balance of power, but Georgia offers the more likely prospect.
In Georgia, two runoff elections would mean a campaign on an almost national scale, with tens of millions of dollars spent by both sides.
Biden has been mum on the Senate balance as he awaits the results in his own election, but he offered a preview days before Tuesdayās election.
āI canāt tell you how important it is that we flip the United States Senate. Thereās no state more consequential than Georgia in that fight,ā Biden declared at an Atlanta rally on Oct. 27, when he campaigned alongside Democratic Senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Votes were still being counted to determine whether Ossoff will meet Georgia Sen. David Perdue in a second round. Georgia law requires an outright majority to win a statewide office.
Separately, a Georgia special election to fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson will require a runoff between Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the Republican appointed to the post last year after Isakson retired.
Nationally, the Senate stands at 48-48. But Republicans lead uncalled races in Alaska and North Carolina. By Thursday, the focus turned to Georgia.
Both sides promised unlimited funds would flow to the campaigns and onto the airwaves, and they predicted an all-star cast of campaigners for a state that in recent weeks drew visits from Biden, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who led Senate Democratsā campaign efforts in the 2018 cycle, warned that McConnell, who has gleefully dubbed himself the āgrim reaperā of the Democratic agenda, would threaten a Biden presidency if he returns as majority leader.
āHis DNA has been all about obstruction and very little about constructive progress together,ā Van Hollen said.
McConnell almost certainly wouldnāt grant a floor vote to Bidenās proposal for a public option expansion of the 2010 Affordable Care Act or the Democratās proposed repeal of some of Trumpās top-end tax cuts. McConnell refused to grant Obamaās Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, hearings or a vote.
Progressives, meanwhile, lament losses in Senate races that could have given Democrats a majority with a cushion. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, tried Thursday to downplay the pitfalls of GOP control, arguing that ābold executive branch actions that impact peopleās livesā still could ādefine Bidenās legacy.ā
Republicans countered with warnings of an āextremistā government if Democrats, who appear positioned to keep the House majority despite losing seats, control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
āDavid Perdue won this race in regular time and will do the same in overtime,ā said Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of the Senate Republicansā campaign arm, blasting Ossoff as a front man for ānational Democrats and their shared dream of a socialist America.ā
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, was harsher. āWe are in danger of losing the Senate to extremist liberals who want to raise your taxes, defund the police and pass legislation for a sweeping government takeover,ā Hawley wrote in a fundraising pitch for Loeffler.
Bidenās tax plan proposes increases only on corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Neither Ossoff nor Warnock proposes ādefunding the police.ā And Hawleyās fundraising email didnāt explain what Democratsā ātakeoverā would be. But his assertions track the fault lines that will define the runoff campaigns.
In Georgia, Republicans and Democrats embraced the national frame, even as they talked up their candidatesā individual attributes. Loeffler is Georgia's first female senator in the modern era. Warnock, pastor of the church where civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. preached, would be Georgiaās first elected Black senator.
āThese are compelling candidates ... but I think they have to accept it for what it is: a Democrats-versus-Republican race thatās all about the setup and authority in the Senate,ā said Jack Kingston, a former congressman who narrowly lost a GOP Senate runoff to Perdue in 2014.
State Democratic Chair Nikema Williams, just elected to succeed the late Rep. John Lewis in Congress, said itās impossible to separate Senate control from issues that matter to voters on the ground. āThat national conversation has implications for every Georgian,ā she said, noting that McConnell has blocked Democratic bills to expand the Voting Rights Act and send aid to state and local governments hammered by the pandemic and would do the same on health care and other Biden initiatives.
āI canāt wait to have that discussion,ā Williams said.
Williams further celebrated the attention as confirmation of Georgiaās battleground status. Trump won the state by 5 percentage points in 2016, and Democrats have lost nearly every statewide contest for two decades.
For Ossoff, itās a bookend to the start of Trumpās tenure, when he ran for a suburban Atlanta House seat that became the most expensive congressional race in U.S. history to that point. He lost. Warnock, meanwhile, is making his first bid for public office.
āGet ready, Georgia ā the negative ads are coming,ā Warnock says in his first runoff ad released Thursday, with a voiceover introducing mocking attacks: āRaphael Warnock eats pizza with a fork and knife. ... Raphael Warnock even hates puppies.ā
āIām staying focused,ā Warnock then says into the camera. āAnd by the way, I love puppies.ā
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Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report from Washington.