Elected President Joe Biden cheered up the Democratic base in Atlanta on Monday ahead of the all-important Senate by-elections in Georgia.
Mr. Biden urged voters to cast their ballots for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as they face current senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Republicans can retain their grip on the chamber if only one of their candidates wins, while Democrats must win both to reach a 50-50 split, which will make Vice President Kamala Harris the deciding vote.
“We have won here three times,” he said. Biden joked, a reference to the Republican challenges to the election results that ultimately led to his victory.
The president-elect directly linked Democratic candidates to the $ 2,000 stimulus bill that Senate leader Mitch McConnell denied a vote in the Senate.
“If you send Jon and the pastor to Washington, those $ 2000 checks will go out the door, which will restore hope and decency and honor to so many people who are currently struggling,” he said. Biden said.
Mr. Biden is not the only high-profile in the Peach state Monday. President Trump gathers his supporters in the state Monday night, and Vice President Mike Pence urged voters to help the Senate hold its Republican majority at a Monday rally as well.
Mr. Biden won Georgia by more than 11.00 votes, one of the biggest surprises in the presidential race in 2020. President Trump called Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger in Georgia over the weekend and put him and other officials under pressure to do enough. to “find” votes in the state presidential election to make him the winner, according to the sound of the call CBS News received.
During the call, which Mr. Trump in a tweet earlier Sunday, the president told Raffensperger: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have. Because we won the state.”
A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Raffensperger’s office since Nov. 3 has 18 calls from Mr. Trump received, but Saturday was the first time the two officials were connected.
Both parties hope that the results of the presidential election will motivate their base to come out.
The Republican incumbent Perdue led Ossoff, his Democratic opponent, by more than 80,000 votes, but could not achieve the 50% to avoid a run-off. The other race was a special election to fill outgoing Senator Johnny Isakson’s seat. Warnock got the most votes in his race, but the prominent Republicans, the current Loeffler and Congressman Doug Collins, together got more votes than he did.
More than 3 million Georgians voted early, with 2.07 million of those voting in person and 928,000 by mail, according to Georgia Votes.