Biden to campaign in Georgia for Democratic Senate candidates
President-elect Biden set to campaign for Jon Ossoff, the Rev. Raphael Warnock in the state Tuesday; Charles Watson reports.
President-elect Joe Biden hit the campaign trail on Tuesday for the first time since Election Day on Nov. 3.
With the success of his incoming administration’s agenda very much hinging on whether the Democrats sweep both of Georgia's twin Jan. 5 runoff elections and regain the majority in the Senate, Biden traveled to Atlanta to team up with Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, his party’s two Senate candidates in the contests.
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"It’s time to stand up and take back our democracy. Send me these two men and we will control the Senate and we will change the lives of people in Georgia," Biden emphasized.
But if either or both of the Republican incumbents, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, win, the GOP keeps its control of the chamber and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will keep his position, possibly erecting numerous roadblocks to slow down the new Biden administration.
“Joe Biden knows he needs a Democratic Senate to make his life a whole lot easier in the first few years of his presidency,” longtime GOP strategist Colin Reed, a veteran of Republican presidential and Senate campaigns, told Fox News.
President-elect Joe Biden, center, acknowledge supporters at the end of a drive-in rally for Georgia Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate Raphael Warnock, left, and Jon Ossoff, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Biden’s trip comes the day after members of the Electoral College met in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, formalizing the former vice president’s 306-232 electoral vote victory over President Trump. Biden narrowly carried Georgia in the presidential election, making him the first Democrat to win the state in the White House race in more than a quarter-century.
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And his campaign stop comes the day after the nation passed another grim milestone in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic – topping 300,000 dead from COVID-19.
"People need help and they need it right now," Biden stressed as he urged Congress and the White House to come to agreement on a coronavirus relief bill.
Biden topped his speech by thanking Georgia voters.
"Let me start with two simple words. Thank you. Thank you for turning out in record numbers," the president-elect said.
And pointing the two recounts in Georgia that followed the election as Trump contested the state's results, Biden added "thank you for standing strong to make sure your voices were heard, your votes were counted and counted and counted again. I’m starting to feel like I won Georgia three times."
Biden also took aim at Loeffler and Perdue for supporting an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general that aimed to throw out the popular vote results in Georgia as well Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three other states where Biden narrowly edged Trump.
"Your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texas was telling the Supreme Court. They fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that come Jan. 5," Biden highlighted.
Winning both contests is crucial for Biden’s success in passing his agenda. It would lead to a 50-50 Senate and the Democrats with the majority, thanks to the tie-breaking vote of incoming Vice President Kamala Harris. And it would mean the Democrats would control both houses of Congress as well as the White House.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFFS
Biden urged the crowd "to vote in record numbers again… you still need to vote as if your life depends on it, because it does."
And he predicted that Georgia voters would repeat their November performance with another massive turnout.
"I think Georgia’s going to shock the nation with the number of people who are going to vote on Jan. 5," Biden predicted.
Biden’s pick for chief of staff – longtime aide Ron Klain – said last month that Biden would head to Georgia to campaign on behalf of Ossoff and Warnock. Since then, Trump traveled to Georgia to hold a large rally for Perdue and Loeffler. And Vice President Mike Pence this week will make his fourth swing on the Georgia runoffs campaign trail. High-profile surrogates on both sides have been trekking to Georgia, and the campaigns, the political parties and outside groups on both sides have already shelled out more than $400 million to run ads in the showdowns.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., speaks as President Trump and Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., listen at a campaign rally at Valdosta Regional Airport, Dec. 5, 2020, in Valdosta, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t in these special elections. Biden is now the leader of his political party and with that comes the responsibility of campaigning for down-ballot candidates whether you like it or not,” Reed noted.
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But Biden is also putting his name on the line and starting to spend some of his political capital even before he’s inaugurated.
Then-President-elect Barack Obama, Biden’s old boss for eight years, passed on campaigning in person in Georgia for a runoff election in December 2008, where Democratic candidate Jim Martin was narrowly defeated by Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
"Special elections are such unique set of circumstances that people like to extrapolate out from them based on who campaigned in them and who didn’t. I think back to 2010 when President Barack Obama came up to the special Senate election in Massachusetts amid the fierce fight over Obamacare and campaigned on behalf of Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, and didn’t get her over the finish line. He was then tarnished with a loser tag,” noted Reed.
Ahead of Biden’s trip, Trump’s presidential campaign took aim at Ossoff and Warnock as members of the “left-most fringe of the Democrat Party” and argued “that Joe Biden would campaign for them is further proof that he is utterly in the grip of the extreme left.”
While this is Biden’s first in-person stop in the Georgia runoffs, his campaign’s already made what’s being described as a mid-seven-figure investment to help Ossoff and Warnock.
Biden’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have spent roughly $5 million so far in the two Jan. 5 elections, a Biden campaign official confirmed on Friday to Fox News. The president-elect’s also paying for about 50 staff members based in Georgia to remain in the key battleground state. And the campaign adds that its efforts in the state are being aided by approximately a dozen analytics and tech staffers.
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The Biden campaign and DNC are also raising money directly for Ossoff and Warnock, with sources confirming to Fox News that roughly $10 million has already been raised. The president-elect on Thursday announced the launch of the “Flip Georgia Fund,” as he urged supporters to donate to Ossoff and Warnock.
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