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While Election Day is gone and a winner has been projected in the presidential race, it’s still unclear which party will have control of the Senate. With Democratic candidate Joe Biden securing over 270 Electoral College votes, it’s on Republicans to hold at least one of Georgia’s two runoff elections in order to maintain a majority in the upper chamber.
Georgia has an unusual requirement for elections held in the state: in order for a candidate to win, they must receive the majority of the vote. This means that even the candidate with the largest plurality of votes is still not the winner.
In a case where no candidate receives the majority of the votes, the election goes into a special runoff with the top two finishers of the general election.
In Georgia’s special election, where over 20 candidates were on the ballot, no one expected any candidate to pull in fifty percent of the vote. Democrat Raphael Warnock had the best showing, pulling in 33% of the vote, while Republican Kelly Loeffler trailed him at 26% of the vote.
In the standard election for Senate, Republican David Perdue got just under fifty percent of the vote, allowing Democrat Jon Ossoff, who pulled in 48%, to advance to a runoff.
The balance of the Senate is in play in these races. Republicans have secured fifty seats in the Senate, a stunning defense of an electoral map that did not favor them. This, coupled with Democrats losing a shocking number of seats in the House of Representatives, shows that the blue wave that was anticipated by pollsters and Democratic leadership never materialized.
Democrats have 48 seats in the Senate currently, meaning they would need to win both runoff races to tip the balance of power in their favor in the Senate.
Since the Vice President is the tiebreaker in the case of the Senate being unable to reach a majority, fifty is all Democrats need to have control of the upper chamber. This is of extreme interest to Republicans and Democrats nationally, as Senator Mitch McConnell is expected to act as a massive check on President-elect Joe Biden.
With all eyes on Georgia, the January 5 runoffs are sure to be the most critical elections of 2021. As Georgia goes, so goes the Senate, and both parties are focusing their energy on the Southern state.
