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Democrats try to win Georgia with a majority in the Senate

2022-12-06T11:12:14.864Z


Biden's party is fighting for the 51st House seat, which would break the tie with the Republicans and give him more room to maneuver


Prayer sessions, bus tours of remote locations and even a Stevie Wonder concert.

These are some of the activities with which the candidates try until the last moment to mobilize voters in the second round of the elections in Georgia, which will award the last pending seat in the US Senate on Tuesday. The result will decide whether the Democrats they achieve the majority in this chamber —making the tiebreaker of the casting vote for the vice president, Kamala Harris, unnecessary— or if it is the Republicans who obtain the seat and, with it, greater capacity to pressure the government of President Joseph Biden.

The interest in the battle between the Reverend Baptist Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidate and current senator, and the Republican Herschel Walker, a former American football star, is maximum.

More than 1.8 million citizens, in a State of ten million inhabitants, had voted early until the deadline closed on Friday.

In the first call, on November 8, participation records had been broken: 2.5 million people voted in advance.

At stake is the 100th seat in the Senate.

The Democrats already have 50 seats, half.

That gives them control of the upper house, but to do so they need to resort to the vice president's tie-breaking vote.

One more seat, which would leave the result at 51-49, would give them more margin in the votes, and more power in the legislative committees.

On the other hand, a victory for the Republicans, who already have a majority in the House of Representatives, would force the Democrats to always mobilize all their senators, including the most wayward ones, to tie any vote and win it with Harris's suffrage.

The panorama appears more than close in this State, a former republican stronghold and today increasingly pivotal thanks to a prosperous economy that has served as a magnet to attract young people and minorities.

The polls point to a slight lead for Democrat Warnock, insufficient to overcome the margin of error.

The reverend of Atlanta's Ebenezer Church — where Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights movement, preached — has gained, by both Republicans and Democrats, an early voting advantage.

The unknown is whether on election day itself, Tuesday the 6th, Walker will be able to offset that advantage.

In the first round, the former athlete received 220,000 more votes than his rival on election day, a total of 56% of the votes cast on that day, according to official figures from the Georgia Secretary of State.

Warnock eventually came out on top thanks to early voting, where his lead was 54% to his opponent's 44%, although he did not get the full 50% majority needed to avoid a runoff.

The senator dedicated Sunday to preaching at his church, and this Monday he will attend a rally at a university center.

Walker, 51, has opted for a series of small rallies as part of his state bus tour.

He will shut down his campaign in conservative areas of North Georgia.

Warnock has managed to mobilize heavyweights in his support.

Former US President Barack Obama participated in a rally in which he criticized Walker for seeing him too far from the necessary stature to occupy a seat in the Senate.

On Sunday, Stevie Wonder gave a concert in his honor.

Scandals and accusations

Walker, for his part, has been bolstered by the support of the popular Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who had kept his distance during the first-round campaign.

Walker's campaign has been plagued by scandals and allegations about mistreatment of women and paying women to have abortions.

This candidate had based his campaign, in part, on his position against the voluntary termination of pregnancy.

Given how tight the result is expected, every vote counts.

And the candidates try to mobilize it by all means.

The key is no longer so much to convince the undecided: after months of campaigning, more or less everyone is clear about who they support.

The important thing is to galvanize the respective bases and make sure they turn out to vote.

Warnock has declared himself "encouraged by the participation in the vote in advance", but has urged his supporters not to rest on their laurels at the last moment, and to continue the calls, sending messages and door-to-door visits so that this Tuesday the largest number of people go to the polls.

"Do not start dancing until we have achieved it," he warned at a rally.

Telephones — and televised ad spaces — are fuming in this final stretch in Georgia, with calls and text messages from both parties and related organizations to encourage people to go to the polling stations despite the forecasts of rain.

When it comes to financing, Warnock has the upper hand in what is already, at a cost of 400 million dollars (about 380 million euros, at current exchange rates), the most expensive battle of this year's legislative elections in USA.

The senator's campaign has invested about $43 million in electoral propaganda, while Walker has spent about $28 million, according to OpenSecrets, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to scrutinizing election money.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-06

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