Biden, Harris to make closing pitches in Georgia’s Senate runoff contests

By John Wagner,

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris will both travel to Georgia in the closing days before its pair of Senate runoff elections, underscoring the importance of contests that will determine which party controls the chamber next year.

Harris plans to tout the two Democratic Senate candidates at an event in Savannah on Sunday, and Biden will appear in Atlanta on Monday, Biden’s campaign announced.

The appearances ahead of Tuesday’s elections are part of what has become a proxy battle of sorts between the two 2020 presidential tickets. President Trump plans to stage a final rally on Monday in Dalton, Ga., for the Republican candidates, and Vice President Pence has also made multiple trips to the state in recent weeks.

[Georgia Senate runoffs test whether Trump remains a ‘poison’ for moderate GOP voters]

The contests pit Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) against Democrat Jon Ossoff and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) against Raphael Warnock.

If the two Democratic candidates prevail, the parties would each hold 50 seats in the Senate next year. With Harris, as vice president, available to cast tie-breaking votes, Democrats would effectively control the chamber, providing a boon to Biden’s agenda.

Biden narrowly carried Georgia in the presidential race, becoming the first Democratic White House aspirant to do so since 1992. His victory has bolstered his party’s hopes in Tuesday’s races.

Trump has continued to press baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the Nov. 3 election and has blamed fellow Republicans, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, for allowing Biden to prevail.

“I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, @BrianKempGA, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don’t have a clue, or worse,” Trump said in late-night tweets on Tuesday. “Nobody can be this stupid.”

Trump’s tweets included a reference to a conspiracy theory involving the brother of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R). As multiple fact-checkers have pointed out, Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother.

“Now it turns out that Brad R’s brother works for China, and they definitely don’t want ‘Trump’. So disgusting!” Trump wrote.