Election

Joe Biden Returns To Georgia Tuesday To Rally For Senate Runoffs

December 15th, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden speaks after the Electoral College formally elected him as president Monday at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del.

Patrick Semansky / Associated Press

President-elect Joe Biden will campaign in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon for the state’s runoff elections. The visit comes the day after he became the first Democrat since 1992 to receive the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.

Biden will speak at a drive-in rally in the Kirkwood neighborhood of Atlanta, according to an announcement from Atlanta City Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong.

Also participating will be the Democratic runoff slate: Senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as well as Daniel Blackman, who is on the January ballot in a Public Service Commissioner runoff.

Biden is the latest in a constant stream of high profile surrogates coming to Georgia because of the Senate runoffs, which will determine control of the upper chamber. President Donald Trump visited more than a week ago, and Vice President Mike Pence is returning for a fourth runoff trip on Thursday.

Because Trump lost Georgia, Biden is expected to bring the message that even though the president’s name isn’t on the ballot, a vote for the Senate candidates is still very much a vote against Trump.

“What [the candidates] really need Joe Biden to do is to remind everyone that the same reason they voted for Joe Biden is the same reason they should vote for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff,” said Stefan Turkheimer, a Democratic strategist from Georgia.

Plus, Turkheimer said, Biden is in the unique position to counter the labels Republicans have hammered on Ossoff and Warnock, namely that they are “radical liberal” and “socialist.”

“When they talk about radical liberal this and socialist that, that was never able to attach to Biden,” Turkheimer said.

“So when Biden stands on the stage with Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and puts his arms around them, maybe from six feet away, it’s basically saying, ‘These are my guys, and I wouldn’t stand here if they weren’t part of what I’m doing.’”

Even though Trump lost the state, Democrats are the underdogs going into the runoffs based on their down ballot performance in November, further highlighting the importance of Biden’s visit to motivate the base.

Republican Senator David Perdue slightly outperformed Trump and earned nearly 90,000 more votes than his Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff.

Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler was in a special, free-for-all election with 20 other candidates. Still, adding up all the Republican votes versus Democratic votes, Republicans also outperformed by nearly 50,000 votes.

The hope is that Biden’s Georgia campaigning will be able to transfer the “fire of the presidential” to these Senate races, Turkheimer said.

And President Trump’s refusal to concede is making that task even easier, he argued.

“That is fantastic for Democrats in reality because Trump’s continued presence just reminds everyone who voted for voted against Donald Trump that they still don’t like him and that there’s still an alternative,” he said. “There’s still another way to vote against Donald Trump.”