Georgia runoff will determine control of Senate
In the chaotic last season of President Trump, the Washington Post released a recording that shows a desperate last attempt to encourage Georgia election officials to find enough votes to flip the state. The audio will leave a sour taste for many Republicans and concerns will grow that many Trump supporters may not be as motivated to show up for the Georgia Senate runoff races. Democrats are focusing on the future and will likely pass on moving forward with articles of impeachment.
In what was a surprisingly close vote, Speaker Pelosi was re-elected for a fourth non-consecutive term to head the House of Representatives. With the smallest majority in decades and as the pandemic disrupted some attendance, Pelosi got 216 votes while Republican leader Kevin McCarthy received 209. The Democrats are very fearful of the 2022 elections as Republicans seem in a good position to possibly win both houses.
The focus this week is mainly on the Tuesday Georgia Senate runoff races. Georgia residents appear motivated in deciding who controls the US Senate with a record 3 million early votes, roughly 39% of all registered voters in Georgia. For the presidential election nearly 5 million votes were cast, with Biden winning 49.5% of the vote against President Trump’s 49.3%. Since Georgia does not register voters by party, it is unclear how much of the early voting went to the Democrats and Republicans. The early voting statistics show that Republican congressional districts in north Georgia had a poor turnout, but that was somewhat expected as many Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day. The Democrats may also be optimistic that black turnout was strong with early voting.
Wall Street is still pricing in Republicans to win at least one of the Georgia Senate runoff races, but confidence should be waning for that outcome.