Election Day 2020 is over and the outcome of the presidential race has been decided, but the Senate is still up for grabs.
As of Thursday at 9 pm, Democrats have 48 seats in the Senate, and Republicans have 50. Cal Cunningham conceded earlier in the week to Thom Tillis, ending the North Carolina Senate race. Cunningham came within two points of unseating Tillis. Incumbent, Dan Sullivan, defeated Al Gross in Alaska earlier in the week. The outcome of the Senate will come down to two seats in Georgia headed for a runoff.
What is a runoff race? According to Ballotpedia, a runoff election is a second election held to determine the winner when no candidate in the first election meets the vote count to win the race. In Georgia, both Senate races will be determined by the outcome of the runoff election in January, since no candidate in either race received 50% of the vote.
Why does Georgia have this runoff system in the Senate? Historians say that it was created to make it harder for the preferred candidates of Black voters in Georgia to win during the Jim Crow era. According to Vox News, in 1963, Denmark Groover proposed the runoff election system in state, local, and federal offices. By having a runoff, Black voters in Georgia would no longer be able to vote overwhelmingly for one candidate, while the white voters in the state would split their votes among many candidates. This way, the top candidate that was backed by white voters, and the candidate that was supported by Black voters, would be in a runoff election and the white voters’ candidate would be more likely to win.
On Election Day, in the special election, Democrat Rapheal Warnock, received 32.9% of the vote, while Republican Kelly Loeffler Received 25.9%. In the regularly scheduled election, Republican Senator, David Perdue received 49.7% of the vote, while Democrat Jon Ossoff received 48%.
If Democrats manage to win both seats, the party would take control of the Senate after Inauguration Day. With a tie in the Senate at 50/50, Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tie breaker in votes. It would be significantly easier for President Biden to get his agenda through Congress, with that incredibly slim majority.
Up until recently, it seemed unlikely that the Democrats would be able to flip both of these seats, given that Georgia was a seemingly red state. Runoff elections in the state usually go to Republican candidates. But, the state appears to be changing and grassroots activists such as Stacey Abrams, and the work of her organization, Fair Fight, are mobilizing Black voters in the Georgia. Abrams increased voter registration and voter turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections. President-elect Joe Biden is also likely to become the first Democrat to carry the state of Georgia since 1992, after gaining 14,000 more votes than President Trump. A state that was once extremely red, now seems to be more purple.
Georgia has also never seen a runoff election like this one. Two extremely high profile races are on the ballot, and control of the Senate is on the line. Georgia will be the center of national attention until January 5th. Both parties will spend enormous amounts of money in advertising and on the ground campaigning. With this much national attention, voter turnout could increase vastly across the state. This is also the first time a Black candidate has been on the ballot for a Senate runoff, which could turn out more black voters. Democrats see the momentum from Election Day and want to keep it going.
Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator in 20 years. But, Democrats have many reasons to be hopeful that the outcome of the Senate will end in their favor in Georgia, because of Biden’s victory in the state, and the newly registered voters.
Amelia Morel 