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Democrats won one US Senate race in Georgia and surged ahead in another on Wednesday, moving closer to a stunning sweep that would give them control of the chamber and the power to advance US president-elect Joe Biden’s policy goals.
Raphael Warnock, a Baptist preacher from the historic church of Martin Luther King jnr, beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler to become the first black senator in the history of the deep South state. Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker who at 33 would become the Senate’s youngest member, also declared victory with a narrow lead over incumbent David Perdue, although media had yet to declare a winner in that race.
If upheld, the results would give Democrats narrow control of both chambers of Congress, making it easier to appoint liberal-leaning judges and advance legislative priorities from coronavirus relief to climate change when Mr Biden takes office on January 20th.
“Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now,” Mr Biden said in a statement. He said he would work with both parties to confirm key administration officials quickly. That would amount to a final defeat for outgoing president Donald Trump, who stands to be the first US president since 1932 to lose the White House and both chambers of Congress in a single term.
With 98 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Warnock led Ms Loeffler by 1.2 percentage points, roughly 54,600 votes, according to Edison Research. Ossoff led Perdue by more than 17,000 votes, just shy of a 0.5 percent threshold to avoid a recount. Most outstanding votes were from Democratic-leaning areas. Winning both contests would hand Democrats narrow control of the Senate by creating a 50-50 split and giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote from January 20th.
Georgia has found itself in the firing line since that election, with Donald Trump disputing the results of the presidential election in the state which was narrowly won by Joe Biden.
On Saturday, the president pressured Georgia’s secretary of state and officials to “find” extra votes to swing November’s election in his favour. On Tuesday, those same election officials oversaw the Senate run-off races which were conducted smoothly.
Tuesday night’s tight races also cement Georgia’s status as a swing-state. Traditionally Republican-leaning, the state has witnessed an influx of new residents in recent years, while local officials like gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have successfully increased voter registration among the state’s African-American population.
Tuesday’s elections took place ahead of a crucial joint session of Congress on Wednesday at which Mr Biden’s election victory is due to be officially confirmed. But several Republicans have said they will contest the results from certain states when they are announced in the chamber.
Up to a third of Republicans in the Senate and more than 100 members of the House of Representatives plan to object to the election result in at least three, if not more, states. This is despite the fact that claims of widespread voter fraud perpetuated by the president have been dismissed by dozens of courts.
However, the mathematics of US Congress makes it virtually impossible that Mr Biden’s victory in November will be overturned.
Pence
Vice-president Mike Pence has also come under increasing pressure from the president in the last 48 hours to invalidate the results of the presidential election when Congress convenes.
Mr Pence on Wednesday said he has no power to reverse Mr Trump’s re-election defeat, defying the president’s demands that he unilaterally reject Electoral College votes from contested states during a congressional session Wednesday. “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Mr Pence said in a letter to Congress preceding the event. Last night, the Trump campaign hit back at news reports that Mr Pence had informed the president that he lacked the power to change the result, branding it “fake news” and insisting that the vice-president and president were “in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act.”
Mr Trump is scheduled to address a “Save America” rally outside the White House on Wednesday, amid expectations that thousands of demonstrators will protest the election result. Washington’s mayor Muriel Bowser has deployed around 340 of the city’s 2,700-strong National Guard to reinforce local police amid fears that violence could flare. – Additional reporting from Reuters