DomesticPOLITICSThe Senate Runoff Elections in Georgia

Currently, all eyes in the sports world are on Augusta, Georgia for the Super Bowl of golf, The Masters. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the 3 top-ranked players in the world are tied for first place going into the weekend, and big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson are in the hunt. It will be nice for Georgia to get some press outside of politics for 2 more days, and that...
Gary Flick3 years ago187510 min
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Currently, all eyes in the sports world are on Augusta, Georgia for the Super Bowl of golf, The Masters.

For the first time in the history of the tournament, the 3 top-ranked players in the world are tied for first place going into the weekend, and big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson are in the hunt. It will be nice for Georgia to get some press outside of politics for 2 more days, and that was me doing my best to contribute… because after this weekend, all eyes in the political world will be glue to the U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia that have the potential to swing the Senate to Blue, meaning a unified White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time since 2009, when it was Red with George W. at the helm.

Runoff Election – Defined

According to Georgia Law (which is an “unusual” one within our country, more on that later), in order for a candidate to win an election in the state, they must receive a majority of the votes (think “at least 50%” vs “more votes than other candidates”), or a runoff election is called. Both senate races in Georgia did not have a majority winner, so the state will hold a runoff election for both seats in the U.S. Senate on January 5, 2021. The reason a candidate may not (and, in this case, neither did) get 50% of the votes is third-party and write-in votes, so runoff elections are simply the two major vote getters with no write-ins allowed. A simple, but important, this person vs. this person, majority-wins election.

The Gravity of this Particular One

To say there is some progressive work to be done in America in the wake of the Donald Trump experiment that resulted in a disturbing resurgence of white supremacy and an almost endless list of regressive rhetoric, especially related to individuals who were not white, straight, men, would be the political understatement of the year. Though Biden’s presidential election and a Dem-controlled House of Representatives will almost certainly result in a more progressive four years compared to the Trump presidency, a blue Senate would open the floodgates for forward-thinking legislation regarding police, systemic racism (which, when Biden said he would address this issue, he was the first president in U.S. history to make such a claim and use the words systemic racism… a big deal, and hopefully not a weightless claim…. but remember, these are U.S. politicians), climate change, and other progressive initiatives. Currently, the Democrats have 48 of 100 seats, and the Republicans pretty much have 50, though Alaska hasn’t officially been called (a “long shot for Dems” would even be optimistic).

If the Democrats can find a way to win both runoff elections, the Senate would be split 50/50, and when votes are tied in the Senate, the Vice President of the United States of America makes the deciding vote… and it’s probably safe to say that Kamala Harris will side with the Democrats if that situation were to arise.

Expectations

One of the Senate elections in Georgia had 20 candidates on the ballot, and a runoff was expected. The two top vote-getters in that election were Democrat Raphael Warnock (33% of votes) and Republican Kelly Loeffler (26%), and these two will now be head-to-head on the runoff ballot devoid of the other 18 candidates. In the other Senate race in Georgia, Republican David Perdue fell just shy of his 50%, attaining 49.7% of the votes. His challenger, Democrat Jon Ossoff held his own at 48%, and, needless to say, it’s going to be a close one.

As most folks with eyes noticed last week, Georgia had a lot of black people voting, and those votes are making enormous differences in the state, just as they did in the presidential election. Though Perdue is favored to win his runoff based solely on the results of the initial election, Georgia has a few not-so- secret weapons when it comes to rallying the black vote. Black Georgian activists like Stacey Abrams, Michael “Killer Mike” Render, and other supporters of the Fair Fight voting rights organization created by Abrams deserve as much credit in getting Georgia to vote as anyone cares to give them, and then a little bit more. Their involvement in educating and empowering black voters in Georgia simply cannot be understated relative to Georgia going blue in the presidential election and the Trump Administration being no longer. With another month and a half to register and educate voters, there is certainly reason for optimism from the Left in the Perdue/Ossoff race, but certainly reason for the Right to expect their candidate to retain his percentage and earn the Senate seat.

Sweet Democracy

I love me some poetic justice, and though not written as such, the general perception of the runoff laws in Georgia is that they were created in the 60s in case two white candidates split votes and allowed for a black candidate to wind up with the most votes. The runoff would allow the white folk to put their differences aside to vote together against the theoretical black “winner” so he or she could not take the seat. Though Ossoff is, indeed, a white guy, it’s no surprise that Abrams and company will be pushing hard to get as many people as humanly possible to vote for him. What a scene: a racist law enacted in the 60s may now wind up being the primary reason a white Republican loses his U.S. Senate seat after an election that would have given him the win an any northern state (i.e. no runoff election laws). All the while, a black woman encouraging her neighbors to vote is the aforementioned white Republican’s biggest threat. This is going to be fun to watch.

Gary Flick

One comment

  • BD

    November 16, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    I agree.

    Reply

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