The $ 900 billion pandemic relief package that President Trump signed late Sunday night got steam as a problem in the Georgian Senate’s runoff, with the two Republican incumbents wanting to ride on the wind of the stimulus bill and claim credit for the assistance to the state.
“Help is on the way,” said Senator Kelly Loeffler tweeted Monday morning when he applauded the billion-dollar stimulus package for the distribution of vaccines, schools and other beneficiaries, and a payment of $ 600 to millions of Americans. She and her co-incumbent, David Perdue, have a statement On Sunday night, he thanked the president for the final approval of the stimulus funds, avoiding the fact that Mr. Trump plunged the bill into disarray last week, calling it a “disgrace” and demanding that direct payments be increased to $ 2,000.
At the same time, the two Democratic candidates – Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock – On Monday, criticized the Republican Senate for dragging its feet for months. They called the $ 600 payments too small and used the president’s call for larger payments to strengthen their position.
“David Perdue does not care about us, and $ 600 is a joke,” he said. Ossoff told several hundred people during an extracurricular rally with Mr. Warnock in DeKalb County, one of the Atlanta suburbs in the suburbs that has become increasingly diverse over the past decade.
“You are sending me and Reverend Warnock to the Senate and we will put money in your pocket,” he said. Ossoff said. He stares at Mr. Perdue in the run-off, while mr. Warnock me. Loeffler challenges.
Mr. Perdue attacked ads that Mr. Ossoff attacked because he called the $ 600 relief checks a joke, even though the president also called them too small. Mr. Ossoff posted on Twitter that mr. Perdue did not even prefer a first round of direct payments this past spring.
With election day in Georgia, which was just over a week away, Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to sign the stimulus package, Loeffler and Mr. Perdue placed in a fine position. Both supported the measure with a direct payment of $ 600, but both are strong supporters of Mr. Trump and dared to anger him if they violated him in public over the need to sign the bill.
“The president continues to put both incumbent Republican senators in difficult positions during a very controversial Senate run-off,” said Bill Crane, a longtime Republican political operator and analyst in Georgia.
Despite the confusion, the president tweeted Sunday that on the eve of the election he would make a final campaign on behalf of the two senators in Dalton, Ga., A carpet production center in the north. The two races attracted national attention and a record supply of money due to their potentially important role in determining the balance of power in the Senate.
If both mr. Ossoff and Mr. Warnock wins, there will be a split of 50 to 50, with control of the chamber shifting to the Democrats because of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ ability to break ties.
The fate of the two senators in the unusual double downturn could amount to the rise in Dalton and the rest of Northwest Georgia, a conservative area where Mr. Trump won 70 percent or more of the votes in most counties. His decision to visit the region, where he is still popular, was apparently aimed at a last-ditch effort to motivate Republican voters.
The election appears to be on a record turnout in a run-off, with 2.1 million Georgians already voting at the early ballot or by ballot. The heaviest turnout so far has been in Democratic areas around Atlanta.
Mr Crane said he saw benefits for Democrats in the early voting, the enthusiasm of the electorate and the money. “The Democrats killed by mail vote,” Mr. Crane said and also noted that 76,000 new voters have registered since the November election, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“This again speaks of enthusiasm and will play for the Democratic side,” he said.
Republicans have expressed concern that the repeated complaints from Mr. Trump on ‘illegal elections’ – a false allegation he made about his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. to declare – the voters in their party will discourage them from blocking the Senate run-off. Mr. Crane said the message from far-right commentators about voter fraud in the state was tolerated, and some Georgians were confused as to whether their vote would count. “Georgia is still at odds with ‘should we vote at all,'” he said.
With the early vote until December, the campaigns of Mr. Warnock and Mr. Ossoff on Monday focused on encouraging voters to vote. Their drive-in event, held in the parking lot of a Baptist church, featured performances by several rappers, including Shelley FKA DRAM, JID, Tokyo Jetz and BRS Kash.
Mr. Ossoff, who runs a documentary production company, and Mr. Warnock, the pastor of a historic church in Atlanta, encouraged their followers to go to early polling stations or submit their ballots in the boxes. “The whole country is watching the voters of Georgia to see what we are going to do at this historic moment,” he said. Ossoff said.
Both mr. Ossoff as mr. Warnock – as well as Democrats on Capitol Hill – saw the stimulus checks as a winning problem and seized on the smaller payments and the president’s opposition to the stimulus package in an effort to boost their chances in Georgia. Monday, hours before the House of Representatives voted to promote the $ 2,000 stimulus checks presented by Mr. Trump, mr. Ossoff is claimed tweeted, “@Perduesenate, when do you commit to $ 2,000 Georgian emergency tests?”