2024 Republican candidates to descend on Georgia to keep Senate
Candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are set to descend on the state of Georgia in the coming weeks ahead of two high-profile Senate runoffs.
The pair of races will take on huge importance because, if Democrats can beat both sitting Republican senators, they would achieve a 50-50 tie in the Senate.
When the Senate is split the vice president casts the deciding vote, meaning Kamala Harris would give Democrats control.
With the White House, and control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, Democrats would have a greatly increased chance of forcing through their agenda.
As Georgia became a rallying cry for Republicans potential 2024 candidates, including Florida senator Rick Scott, and South Carolina senator Tim Scott indicated they would be there shortly.
Nikki Haley, Donald Trump's former UN Ambassador and a probable 2024 contender, wrote on Twitter: "All eyes will go to Georgia as we look at the fate of the Senate. Take a moment and show your support today and let’s win this in January!"
Responding to Democrat Senate leader Chuck Cchumer's comment that "we take Georgia, then we change the world," Ms Haley wrote: "Not on our watch. The fight may move to Georgia but victory is in our future."
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr also pushed the importance of Georgia on social media. A spokesman for Mr Trump Jr said he would be "very involved" in the fight to keep the two Georgia seats on Jan 5.
In Georgia if no candidate reaches 50 per cent there is a runoff.
The first Georgia race saw Republican senator David Perdue, who is seeking a second term, receiving 49.8 per cent of the vote last week, compared to Democrat Jon Ossoff, who got 47.9 per cent.
In the other contest, black Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock got 32.9 per cent to sitting Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler's 25.9 per cent.
But there were several other Republican and Democrat candidates in that race, and when the totals were added up by party they proved about equal.
Georgia has not elected a Democrat senator for two decades but changing demographics and the trend of recent elections suggest Demcorats have a chance at winning the runoffs, according to political analysts.
Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University, said: "Whichever party has the better turnout operation will be the one that wins."
