Donald Trump and Joe Biden converge Monday, January 4, in Georgia, in the south of the country, to support their candidates in a decisive double senatorial election.
Election signs, candidates' buses, door-to-door and meetings: two months after the presidential election, Georgia has regained the air of a national campaign before the double senatorial on Tuesday.
With the culmination of the visit on Monday of the outgoing president and the president-elect.
A rare coincidence testifying to the decisive importance of this election, which will determine the control of power in Washington for the next four years.
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Marked by slavery and segregation, Georgia has seen the birth and death of several figures in the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans, from Martin Luther King to John Lewis.
But this southern state has never elected a black senator and has not sent a Democrat to the upper house for twenty years.
The Democratic candidates therefore leave from afar in Georgia.
Yet on them rest the hopes of the party, and of Joe Biden.
If they achieve the double feat, Democrats Raphaël Warnock and Jon Ossoff will tip the upper house into their camp, giving all the levers of power to the elected president.
With 50 seats each for Republicans and Democrats, the future vice-president Kamala Harris would have the power to decide between the votes, and therefore to tip the scales on the Democratic side in the Senate, today with a Republican majority.
Joe Biden would thus arrive at the White House with a Democratic House of Representatives and Senate, which would allow him to apply his program.
"Too tight to make a prediction"
To support the Republicans, Donald Trump will give what should be his last big meeting on Monday evening before leaving the White House on January 20.
The billionaire is expected to be received as a hero in Dalton, in a rural and conservative riding in northwest Georgia.
Because in the countryside, the signs "Trump 2020" remain numerous.
More besides than those of the senators he comes to support: the ex-man and businesswoman Kelly Loeffler, 50 years, and David Perdue, 71 years.
Donald Trump's right-hand man, Mike Pence, will be in a rural area of southern Atlanta.
Joe Biden will be in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia.
The Democratic president-elect will campaign with Raphael Warnock, a 51-year-old black pastor who preaches in Martin Luther King's former church, and 33-year-old audiovisual producer Jon Ossoff.
"Everything is played"
during the election on Tuesday, the
"future of our country,"
said Democrat Kamala Harris during a meeting in Savannah, a large colonial city where she was campaigning with the two candidates.
For the Republicans, it is also the future of the country which is at stake.
"We are the firewall to prevent socialism from arriving in America,"
said Kelly Loeffler to her supporters gathered in Cartersville, a pretty little town. .
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The polls show the candidates neck and neck: Jon Ossoff will challenge David Perdue while Raphaël Warnock will face Kelly Loeffler.
On paper, the Republicans are favorites in this conservative state.
Democrats, however, are relying on Joe Biden's victory in that state on November 3, a first in Georgia since 1992, to believe it.
But Joe Biden's victory here is also explained by the vote of anti-Trump Republican or independent voters, who could this time come back into the fold of the party.
More than three million voters opted for early voting, out of seven million registered, a record for a by-election.
But a lower level than that recorded at the same stage for the presidential election.
All of these factors make for a situation
"too tight to make a prediction," said
Trey Hood, professor at the University of Georgia.
African Americans
"represent one of the broadest bases of support for Democratic candidates in this state and their mobilization is therefore always crucial," said
Trey Hood, professor at the University of Georgia.
One in three inhabitants is African-American in Georgia (10.6 million inhabitants).
This population has always been important, he recalls, but
"what has changed is the number of African-Americans in the electorate"
, now at nearly 30%.
“Black Voters Matter”
: Black voters count.
This slogan, modeled on the now famous "Black lives count", recalls the masks of organizers in Hampton.
Under the leadership of the former Georgia parliamentarian, Stacey Abrams, organizations have successfully mobilized in recent years to denounce and fight against the institutional obstacles still blocking the vote of minorities: long queues, difficulties on time to register on the lists or to confirm his identity ... Fieldwork that could weigh on Tuesday.