Strong early vote turnout….
Donald Trump attacking Republicans in the state…
A judge thwarting Republican efforts to suppress votes…
Slight leads in the polls….
A change in who votes in a state that is seen as Red but could be turning Purple.…
Could early voting that appears to lean Democratic overcome next Tuesdays in person expected Republican vote?
Could Democratic voters in Georgia demote US Senate Majority Leader to Minority Leader and Give Joe Biden a majority US Senate to start governing with?
Democrats are buoyed by the strong early vote numbers, which show Black voters making up a larger percentage of the electorate than in November and higher early turnout in Democratic congressional districts in the state. Both are positive signs for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the two challengers, easing fears that the typical voter dropoff that has plagued Democrats in past years would doom the party’s chances with control of the Senate on the line.
Meanwhile, early-vote turnout has lagged in Republican-held congressional districts, likely leaving GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue with a larger deficit heading into Election Day than they had to make up on Nov. 3, with early voting concluding this week leading up to the New Year’s holiday.
Both parties have been closely tracking the in-person and absentee ballots that have already been submitted, looking for data on the state of the races after the extremely close contests in November and with less than a week left to tweak get-out-the-vote and advertising strategies for next Tuesday’s vote.
While the early-vote figures provide some comfort to Democrats, they are hardly predictive: Republican officials have always anticipated needing to overperform on Election Day compared with Democrats. GOP voters have long preferred casting ballots in person and on the day of the election, but the partisan differences in voting became even more acute after President Donald Trump spent much of the year criticizing voting by mail and attacking the administration of Georgia’s November election….
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Though Biden won the state narrowly, Perdue outpaced Ossoff by nearly 100,000 votes, and Republicans earned more overall votes than Democrats in the special election for the other Senate seat. To have success in the runoffs, Democrats needed a more favorable electorate, and believe there are indications that it may materialize.
538 has Georgia Dem’s trending up in the polling average….
Not by much…
Sen. David Perdue, one of the Republican candidates in the pair of Georgia runoffs that will determine the trajectory of Congress for the next two years, is quarantining after coming into close contact with someone connected to his campaign who has tested positive for the coronavirus….
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